While it is often very helpful to discuss options with your GP or family planning nurse before being referred, it is possible to opt for an NHS abortion in some parts of the country. However, you should still access the abortion service of the NHS board where you live. The first references to abortion in English law appeared in the 13th century. The law followed the Church`s teaching that abortion was acceptable to the point of “acceleration,” which was believed to be when the soul entered the fetus. The legal situation has remained the same for centuries. In 1938, R v. Bourne[22] allowed for further consideration. This case concerned an abortion performed on a raped girl and extended the abortion defence to the “mental and physical wreckage” (Lord Justice McNaghtan). Concerned gynecologist Aleck Bourne became a founding member of the anti-abortion group Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in 1966.[23] After 1967, there was a rapid increase in the annual number of legal abortions and a decrease in sepsis and deaths from illegal abortions.
[140] In 1978, 121,754 abortions were performed on women residing in the United Kingdom and 28,015 on non-resident women. [141] The rate of increase has been declining since the early 1970s and even decreased from 1991 to 1995 before rebounding. The age group with the highest number of abortions per 1000 people is 20 to 24 years old. 2006 statistics for England and Wales showed that 48 per cent of abortions took place in women over 25, 29 per cent were between 20 and 24; 21% are under 20 and 2% under 16. [142] Aberdeen and Glasgow appear to embody the two opposites of abortion practice in Scotland at the time. As Sally Macintyre explains, the 1967 Act raised a problem that medicine and society are increasingly facing, namely the limits of the profession`s sphere of competence and authority.23 When Steel`s bill was passed in the House of Commons, one group advocated for the sanctity of life and the physician`s duty to preserve it; while another argued that the primary duty of the physician was the health of his patient. Baird and MacGillivray expressed the latter view, saying, “When it comes to abortion, I think the well-being of the mother is the most important factor. Preserving life at all costs is certainly not the point. On the contrary, as doctors, we should be concerned about alleviating human suffering.
24 On the other side of the debate, the principle of sanctity of life was often based on the “end of the corner” argument, that if the destruction of the fetus was permitted for a reason other than immediate danger to the woman`s life, the profession would use its expertise to destroy life in other situations. Donald summed up this argument by calling abortion “the cutting edge of the corner leading to Belsen, euthanasia of the elderly, infirm and imbecile, and a bold new world of test-tube babies in artificial wombs of 1984.”25 A 2011 MORI[152] survey examined women`s attitudes toward abortion. Westminster`s responsibility for criminal justice and health policy, including abortion, on the island of Ireland was transferred to the Parliament of Northern Ireland (when it was created in 1921) and the Parliament of the Irish Free State (established in December 1922). Both legislators took an essentially conservative stance, considering abortion an offence against the person or an offence of child destruction, in accordance with the legislation in force in England and Wales. Read more: Now Roe v. Wade has been overturned, here`s how we`re fighting to keep access to safe abortion Most abortions in Scotland, around 75%, are performed before a pregnancy reaches 9 weeks, and almost all, around 98%, are performed before 20 weeks. The number of pregnant women from the island of Ireland travelling for abortion was previously much higher, although it has decreased due to legislative changes in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scottish abortion statistics record the pregnant woman`s place of residence in Scotland (i.e. an NHS governing board or local government area); these figures include temporary addresses of students and a small number of women travelling to Scotland from elsewhere. [136] In summary, there is, on the whole, a clear medicalization of abortion in the political decision-making process at the end of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, as my research is beginning to show, this process could be geographically very uneven in the post-war period and largely imposed on the profession. Figures like Baird established a beachhead of medical interventionism in sexual health far ahead of much of the British medical establishment, which continued to question the relevance of such interventionism in terms of medical ethics and professional status.
Personalities like Ian Donald, on the other hand, reveal very clearly the tension between personal values and professional duty by articulating one`s own social and cultural values in this morally and politically charged environment. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 prohibited in England and Wales the administration of drugs or the use of instruments to induce an abortion and the purchase of drugs or other objects to induce abortion,[62] although the subsequent Act provided a number of reasons for abortion to be widely available. In 2020, London was the region with the most abortions, followed by the South East of England, the West Midlands and the North West of England. Abortion statistics collected at regional or national level (for England, Wales and Scotland individually) refer to residents. Abortions for non-residents are also recorded in England and Wales (combined), although they have been lower than usual this year due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic (943 abortions). Information for Northern Ireland is collected by financial year rather than calendar year, with 22 abortions registered in 2019-2020. In 1939, the Interdepartmental Committee on Abortion, established by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health, recommended a change in abortion laws, but the intervention of World War II meant that all plans were suspended. After the war, after decades of stagnation, some high-profile tragedies, including unborn child disabilities caused by thalidomide, and social changes brought the issue of abortion back into the political arena. In 2017, the Reproductive Health (Access to Abortion) Act was introduced by Labour MP Diana Johnson with the aim of repealing the abortion penal code in England and Wales.
[42] However, with the call for a general election, the bill was defeated and no further action was taken. [43] (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, no person shall be guilty of an offence under the Abortion Act if a pregnancy is terminated by a licensed physician, if two licensed physicians are of the opinion in good faith – Two years later, in a landmark case, Dr.
