BRITAIN’S MPs squared up for another big abortion clash yesterday, this time over a looming attempt to make terminations “easier and earlier”.

A cross-party group of MPs tabled a series of amendments that would trigger the most significant relaxation of the abortion laws since the practice was legalised more than 40 years ago.

Nurses in neighbourhood clinics would be able to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to be taken at home, and the requirement for two doctors to approve an abortion would be scrapped.

But some Merseyside MPs quickly insisted the moves would be defeated next Monday, when the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill returns to the Commons.

And one, Birkenhead’s Frank Field, tabled an amendment to toughen up the law by requiring three doctors to certify an abortion, after 24 weeks, of a foetus with severe abnormalities.

However, the liberalising moves are backed by abortion charities and health groups, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Nurses and Marie Stopes, the family planning organisation.

And the MPs behind the amendments believe the wind is in their sails after the Commons, in May, threw out attempts to cut the time limit below 24 weeks.

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat’s science spokesman, said: “This would make abortion less traumatic by having fewer barriers which, for some women, would mean having an abortion earlier.”

Ann Furedi, of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said: “Abortion services should be organised according to what’s regarded as best clinical practice, rather than parliamentary prejudice.”

And Julie Bentley, of the Family Planning Association (FPA), added: “The earlier that women who require or desire an abortion can get one the better.”

But leading anti-abortion campaigner Claire Curtis-Thomas, the Crosby MP, said: “The Government has indicated no desire to change the rules on abortions, so I can’t see these amendments being agreed to.”

The measures also include:

* Allowing abortions in GP surgeries and family-planning clinics, as well as hospitals and private clinics;

* Allowing nurses, as well as doctors, to carry out abortions;

* Banning anti-abortion groups from advertising “pregnancy counselling” without stating they oppose terminations.

Meanwhile, Nadine Dorries, the Liverpool-born Conservative anti-abortion campaigner, pledged to force another vote on cutting the time limit to 20 weeks.

On the proposal for women to take the drug misoprostol at home, Ms Dorries said: “Are we really suggesting we should allow a 14-year-old girl to pop a pill at home without informing her parents, and then flush the remains of her baby down the toilet?”