Dorries: Left's pro-choice stance inspired by 'eugenics'

By Charles Maggs

The left's support for abortion rights stems from its historic relationship with the "eugenics movement", controversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries has said.

The outburst will cause anger on the left due to the movement's close association with theories of racial superiority and the Nazi party.

Asked why the left tends to be more sympathetic to abortion rights, Dorries told politics.co.uk: "I think it goes back to a time when the left was linked very closely to the eugenics movement and people like Marie Stopes, who didn't even attend her own daughter's wedding because she was marrying a man who was wearing glasses.

"That's where I think the left's historic position of abortion stems from."

Eugenics is a biological and social movement which aims to improve the genetic composition of human populations. It was popular in the early Twentieth Century but fell dramatically out of favour after Nazi scientists used it to try and prove theories of racial supremacy.

Dorries argued the left continues to support pro-choice groups, such as AbortionRights, through the trade union movement.

The Mid Bedfordshire MP is currently trying to lower the legal limit on abortions to 20 weeks, from its current limit of 24.