History of UK abortion law
17. UK abortion law is based on several Acts of Parliament.
They are, in chronological order:
a) The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (which
only applies in England and Wales), which makes it an offence
to intentionally procure a miscarriage, either by self-administering
or providing another with "any poison or other noxious thing"
or using "any instrument or other means whatsoever".[8]
b) The Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 (which
only applies in England and Wales), which makes it an offence
to "destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive",
but it is a defence to terminate a pregnancy "in good faith
for the purpose [
] of preserving the life of the mother".[9]
If a woman had been pregnant for a period of twenty-eight weeks
or more, that "shall be primâ facie proof that she
was at that time pregnant of a child capable of being born alive".[10]
c) The Abortion Act 1967 (which only applies
in England, Scotland and Wales), which creates a series of defences
in relation to abortion "when a pregnancy is terminated by
a registered medical practitioner if two registered medical practitioners
are of the opinion, formed in good faith," - except in an
emergency - that one of the stipulated grounds is met. These
grounds were originally given a letter, A to G, to which medical
practitioners still refer. They are outlined below.
d) The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act
1990, which included amendments to the Abortion Act 1967. The
most significant amendment was the reduction of the upper time
limit on most abortions from 28 weeks of gestation to 24 weeks.
The grounds for abortion, although reordered in the Act, are still
referred to, in medical practice, by their original designations.
Accordingly, the grounds for abortion are:
Either where two doctors in good faith agree that:
A the continuance of the pregnancy would involve
risk to the life of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy
were terminated (Abortion Act 1967 as amended, section 1(1)(c));
B the termination is necessary to prevent grave
permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant
woman (section 1(1)(b));
C the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth
week and the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk,
greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the
physical or mental health of the pregnant woman (section 1(1)(a));
D the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth
week and the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk,
greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the
physical or mental health of any existing children of the family
of the pregnant woman (section 1(1)(a)); or
E there is a substantial risk that if the child
were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities
as to be seriously handicapped (section 1(1)(d));
Or in emergency, certified by the operating practitioner
as immediately necessary:
F to save the life of the pregnant woman (section
1(4)); or
G to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical
or mental health of the pregnant woman (section 1(4)).
Additionally, abortion must be carried out "in
a hospital [
] or in a place approved [
] by the Secretary
of State". The Secretary of State was granted by the 1990
Act the power "to approve a class of places"[11]
(see paragraph 113 below for the relevance of this to the question
of where drugs used in early medical abortion can be administered).
e) The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
provides for the registration of every baby born in England and
Wales. Amended by the Still Birth (Definition) Act 1992, it defines
'still-born child' as "a child which has issued forth from
its mother after the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy and which
did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother
breathe or show any other signs of life".[12]
Abortion in the UK
18. The Government produces annual statistics on
abortion. The headline statistics for women resident in England
and Wales in 2006 were:
Table 1. Key Government statistics on abortion in
England and Wales in 2006.