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48 Medico-Legal J. 3 (1980)

handle is hein.journals/medlgjr48 and id is 1 raw text is: THE MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL Founded 1901 1980 Vol. XLVIII Part One EDITORIAL Abortion has always been an emotive topic and any legislation relating to it has inevitably aroused controversy. The Offences Against The Person Act of 1861 (sections 58 and 59) made abortion or assisting in it a criminal offence whatsoever means were used or whether the woman was pregnant or not. This has remained law up to the present time. Two notable landmarks however, were the trials of Bourne in 1938 and of Newton and Stungo in 1959 where medical practitioners who had carried out abortions for therapeutic purposes to save the health of pregnant women were acquitted. This enabled doctors to carry out such abortions although there was no statute law, only case law, to support them. All was changed by the Abortion Act of 1967 which laid down certain criteria for the termination of pregnancy; these state that when two medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith, that (1) the continuance of a pregnancy would involve risk to the life of a pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, or (2) the continuance of pregnancy would involve risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, or (3) the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the existing children of the family of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, or (4) there was a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped, then such abortions are lawful. Within a few years the number of abortions carried out under the terms of this Act had passed the 130,000 mark per annum. It was clear that there were many cases where the original intentions of the Act were being flouted, for example by overseas visitors coming to the United Kingdom specifically for abortions where pregnancies were being terminated on the flimsiest of grounds which were more often social than medical. These abuses of the system led to the Lane Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act being set up. This Committee recognised the imperfections of the system but expressed the view that the indications laid down in 1967 Act should not be changed. It has always been widely recognised that certain parts of the country are 'more liberal' than others and that the abortion rate varies from area to area.

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