LONDON (Reuters):

Pro-life campaigners rallied outside Parliament yesterday to demand changes to the law they say has led to 6.7 million abortions since it came into force 40 years ago.

About 500 men, women and children stood under a steady drizzle with banners reading "Protect Life" and "Women deserve better than abortion" to hear a succession of speakers call for an end to the practice.

"Now is absolutely the right time to turn back the tide of abortion," said Julia Millington, political director of the Prolife Alliance which wants a total ban on abortion.

Campaigners said that when the law legalising abortions came into force in 1967 there were some 20,000 abortions a year.

There are now around 200,000 abortions a year and abortion is being used as a form of contraception. "Murder is no solution to irresponsible sex," read one banner taking that view.

"This is the Alive and Kicking campaign - a coalition of a number of different anti-abortion groups," Millington told Reuters during the rally.