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UK Abortion Act is not working as intended

The health minister, Dawn Primarolo, seems to be living up to her civil servants’ nickname for her: “Dim Prawnorolo”. She declares that the Abortion Act is working “as intended”.

That is the one thing which it is not doing, as those on both sides of the argument on abortion acknowledge.

The intentions of the 1967 Act (last amended in 1990) were to allow abortion in cases where it would prevent serious injury (which included severe mental suffering) in mother or child. It did not create legalised abortion or enshrine a woman’s right to choose, as supporters of abortion on demand have often since complained. Two doctors were required to certify that serious harm would result if an abortion were not carried out.

Although in practice we seem to have abortion on demand - there have been some 6.7 million abortions conducted under the Act, and the figures are rising, to the point where they are running at 200,000 abortions a year and, according to The Lancet, almost one in three pregnancies in Europe ending in abortion - pro-abortion campaigners are clear that it is not a right.

For those opposed to abortion altogether, or who are prepared to tolerate it only in what can be regarded as exception circumstances, those figures are a horrifying indication that the Act is not only not working as intended, but is subject to widespread, almost universal, abuse.

The odd thing about all this is that medical advances mean that premature babies can survive now at earlier and earlier dates, and women who neglect to take folic acid, or persist in smoking or drinking alcohol while pregnant are regarded as irresponsible. But they are regarded as entitled to abort a child at quite a late stage - a right which women do not in fact have. Which is it to be?

The Act desperately needs attention, whether you regard a woman’s right to choose to abort an unborn child as entirely her decision, or instead think that an unborn child has rights which are currently entirely disregarded.

Posted by on 02/25 at 10:48 AM

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