I did wonder whether Iain Dale would have the bottle to stick his own head above the parapet on the HF&E bill, and particularly on the abortion-related amendments, as he certainly can’t be unaware of the pounding that his theatre-going mate, Nadine Dorries, has taken over the last couple of weeks.

And when he does come clean… well, he gets it completely wrong.

I unreservedly back 20 weeks and I make no bones about the fact that I would like to see it lower than that.

Well, there’s a surprise…

Virtually every other European country has a limit of between 12 and 14 weeks.

Wrong – in many countries, the 12-14 week ‘limit’ refers to abortion on request and many then have a secondary limit where specific grounds have to be shown for an abortion to be permitted, grounds which can be pretty variable in intent and application. The real picture is much more complex than Iain suggests…

Their abortion rates are much lower,

Sweden’s is higher, France’s is about the same and national figures often take no account of abortion tourism. Abortion is still illegal in Northern Ireland and restricted to situations in which the mother is at risk in the Irish Republic, which is why clinics on the British mainland carried out over 5,000 abortions on Irish nationals and another 1,700 on residents of Norther Ireland in 2006.

so is the level of sexual activity among under age teenagers.

Not according to Spiegel Online (and the WH O)- apparently it’s the Germans who’re at it like rabbits:

A newly-released World Health Organization (WHO) report on sexual habits among teenagers in 26 European countries reveals that German teens are quick off the mark when it comes to losing their cherry; the average age at which Germans — both boys and girls — first have sex is 16.2.

Only teenagers in Iceland lose their virginity earlier, at an average age of 15.7. Of the countries surveyed, Slovakia had the tardiest teens, who were on average a mature 18 when they first got it on.

I have to say that the Iceland thing makes sense – there’s fuck all else to do there and there’s only so far anyone can get jazzing off over pictures of Bjork.

When I’ve more time, I’ll see if I dig out the full report… I’m curious now.

It is a proven fact that foetuses can survive at 20 weeks – not all, but some do.

No foetus has EVER survived birth below 21 weeks, and the number of survivors at that age amounts to a handful worldwide.

If you live in an area with a hospital with superb neo-natal facilities the survival rates are obviously much higher than if you live in a catchment area without one.

Okay, so I know it too much to expect that Iain’s degree in German, Linguistics and TEFL will equip him to follow any of this, but he’s got this last one wrong as well.

(Okay, so there’s not a dozen here, but do you really think I couldn’t find enough to make the numbers up and more if I could be arsed…)