A Bedfordshire MP has claimed that she is being subjected to a hate campaign in her battle to cut the number of weeks at which women can have abortions.

Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said she has been bombarded with threatening phone calls and packages in the post, as well as unpleasant messages scrawled across her windows.

And she said that she had received a number of "unpleasant parcels" in the post in recent weeks.

The former nurse wrote on her website: "The hounds of hell are chasing me."

And she added: "This is all meant to destabilise or distract me. I have a very clear message to those who are attempting to do this - back off.

"You will not stop me, you will not undermine me, you do not scare me.

"In fact, you make me much more determined than I ever was before. You give me strength."

She said that some of the phone calls she has received have been scary, angry and "downright nasty".

Ms Dorries has been at a forefront of a campaign to cut the current 24-week abortion limit to 20 weeks.

Earlier this month she launced a Parliamentary campaign calling for a legal shakeup, and she said: "Britain has 200,000 abortions a year, or 600 a day.

"That is just to many. We must slow down on abortion."

But her views have not gone down well with pro-life campaigners, who have been vocal in their criticism.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of Nursing have also voiced doubts about the claim, saying that babies born now below 24 weeks do not have better survival chances than they did in 1990, when the 24-week limit was approved.

A statement from the BMA said: "It is the BMA's view, based on the peer-reviewed published UK data, that there is no evidence of significant improvement in the survival of extremely preterm infants to support reducing the 24-week limit for legal abortion."


Read Nadine's blog here