ABSTRACT
It is now twenty years since David Steel’s Private Member’s Bill became the Abortion Act 1967. That Act provided that in certain circumstances doctors had a defence to the crimes set out in s. 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and s. 1(1) of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. Safe, legal abortions became generally available to women for the first time and many women have made use of the facility: 54,819 women had abortions in 1969, rising to 171,873 in 1985.1 After twenty years, abortion continues to arouse passionate feelings and disagreements between those who believe that the foetus should be accorded the status of a human being (and thus its destruction be prohibited by law) and those who believe that the individual woman should have the choice to terminate her pregnancy if she chooses, and that she should be able to do so freely and legally up to term.
