Dying for our own biographies: The Abortion Act 1967

Priaulx, Nicolette M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4210-1980 and Jones, Natalie 2018. Dying for our own biographies: The Abortion Act 1967. Rackley, Erika and Auchmuty, Rosemary, eds. Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating 100 Years of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 275-282. (10.5040/9781782259800.ch-038)

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Abstract

The Abortion Act 1967 transformed a procedure performed clandestinely, and at huge physical risk to women, into one that was lawful when performed by the medical profession. Section 1(1) of the 1967 Act, which applies to England, Wales and Scotland, provides for abortion if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith, that to continue the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, or endanger the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated; or that 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’. The law also permits doctors to take into account the woman’s ‘actual or reasonably foreseeable environment’ (section 1(2)).

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Law Research Institutes & Centres > Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law and Society (CCELS)
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General) K Law > KD England and Wales
Publisher:	Hart Publishing
ISBN:	9781782259770
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 June 2024
Last Modified:	14 Jun 2024 13:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103861

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