He also urged the Government to set up a national bioethics commission of the kind that exists already in most Western European countries, Australia and America.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor raised his concerns in a private meeting with Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, at the Department of Health in London. He said that there was mounting public concern at the number of abortions taking place and that it was time for Parliament to review the Abortion Act 1967.

He cited a recent report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee that urged a review. Its chairman, Ian Gibson, has signed an early day motion tabled by Geraldine Smith, calling for such a review.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said: “This is not primarily a religious issue. It is a human issue. As a society we need to look at ways of supporting women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy. There are now 190,000 abortions each year — more than 20 per cent of all pregnancies in the UK. Each one of these is a tragedy both for the unborn child and the mother.”

His call comes amid public concern about the upper limit for abortions of 24 weeks in the light of medical advances that have made it possible for some foetuses born before this date to survive.

He said: “There is substantial and growing disquiet in Britain at the numbers of abortions. Our laws should reflect this disquiet. I welcome what appears to be a moral awakening, especially among women, to the reality that abortion is the deliberate ending of a human life.”

He said that a bioethics commission was necessary because the present mechanisms were inadequate for dealing with ethical dilemmas posed by new technologies such as embryonic stem-cell research and genetic screening of embryos used in IVF.

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