Facts
- The grounds on which an abortion can be performed are laid down in the Abortion Act 1967, as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
- While the general limit for a legal abortion is 24 weeks gestation, under certain circumstances there is no time limit. These circumstances include a threat to the mother’s life.
- Abortion can also be performed up to birth when a doctor believes “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.”1
- There is no need for a doctor to justify his decision by specifying which serious handicap he believes the child would have suffered from.
- In reality there is a wide variation of opinions amongst doctors as to what constitutes a “serious handicap”. Pro-life organisations argue that relatively minor handicaps such as missing fingers or a cleft palate have been deemed to fall within the definition.
- In 1990 there was an attempt to tighten up the law to require doctors to specify the handicap for which they are aborting a child.
Key points
It is wrong to abort babies just for being handicapped.
Requiring doctors to specify the handicap for which they are aborting a child is not a particularly onerous requirement. Either there is a ‘substantial risk’ that the child is handicapped or there is not. If there is such a risk then it can be quantified and recorded to prove that the law is being complied with. If the doctor cannot do this then he cannot legally perform the abortion.
At the time when the attempt was made in Parliament to require the handicap to be specified, babies were being aborted for minor defects. Requiring the handicap to be specified would at least prevent this by forcing the doctor to certify that the handicap is serious and the risk substantial.
- 1Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, Section 37(1) (d)
