Pro-life campaigners have expressed regret over changes to abortion laws on the Isle of Man.

The Abortion Reform Act allows an abortion for any reason within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and up to 24 weeks where there are foetal anomalies or 'social' reasons.

After 24 weeks, women can have an abortion if there is serious risk to the mother's life or if the baby was likely to die soon after birth or be seriously impaired.

The new law also drops the requirement for two doctors to consider whether the baby's disability might be cured or relieved over time, and introduces safe buffer zones around clinics that will prevent pro-life activists from being able to offer information.

The Act given Royal Assent this week although it is not clear when the new law will come into effect.

The changes make the Isle of Man the first place in the British Isles to decriminalise abortion and formally legalise abortion on demand.

Until now, women on the island could only seek an abortion in exceptional circumstances of rape or serious mental health concerns.  

The reforms were introduced in a private member's bill brought forward last year by Dr Alex Allinson MHK, who told the BBC that decriminalisation 'changes abortion from being a criminal justice issue to a health matter, as it should be'.

Pro-life campaigners, however, were saddened by the news, fearing that the conditions for an abortion under the new law can be widely interpreted.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said the law on the island for abortion was now in many ways 'more extreme' than in England, Wales and Scotland, where it is not entirely decriminalised.

'This legislation, in decriminalising abortion to 14 weeks, providing for buffer zones around abortion clinics, permitting barbaric violence on the unborn and dismissing concern for babies surviving abortion gives an insight into the ruthless nature of the pro-abortion movement,' it said.

'This cruel assault on babies and motherhood in the Isle of Man is a stark warning of the threats we face in the rest of the UK from the on-going abortion decriminalisation movement.'

The Humanity and Equality in Abortion Reform campaign group said it was a 'dark and sad day' for the Isle of Man.

'Now, with the extreme Allinson Bill passed into law, we have imported the worst aspects of British abortion practice into our law, and actually introduce new abuses,' it said.

'Not only will this new Act enable sex-selective abortion from 7-14 weeks at least, but it enables further discrimination against unborn babies with disabilities, and bans compassionate help being offered to women outside abortion facilities, one of the few positive innovations across.'