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Abortion time limits

A briefing paper from the BMA
May 2005

Introduction
Over recent times, calls to review the current provisions of the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 1990) have gathered momentum.

A series of events in the summer of 2004 brought this issue to public attention including the publication of 4D ultrasound images of a fetus in utero (read more here) and a legal challenge centred around the definition of 'serious handicap' in the Abortion Act (read more here).

In March 2005 the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee called on Parliament to set up a joint committee to consider the scientific, medical and social changes in relation to abortion that have taken place since 1967 with a view to presenting options for new legislation. [Go to reference 1]. The Department of Health’s review of the 1990 HFE Act, based on a wide-ranging public consultation exercise, will inevitably raise the profile of this issue still further and will lead to more debate in both the public and professional arena about whether the current time limits for abortion need to be changed. There have also been calls among politicians for Parliament to be given the opportunity to debate the abortion issue again after a gap of 16 years.

The BMA believes it is important to keep legislation and public policy under review but also believes that there is a responsibility amongst policy makers, health professionals and the media to base discussion and debate on factual information. Such information is often difficult to find. The aim of this paper is to provide factual information for BMA members, policy makers and the wider public, in order to facilitate good quality, informed debate about abortion time limits.

What is abortion?
The term 'abortion' is used throughout this paper to refer to the induced termination of an established pregnancy (i.e. after implantation). It does not include the use of emergency hormonal contraception which the High Court has confirmed is not an abortifacient. [Go to reference 2]. All current methods of emergency contraception work prior to implantation and therefore are not abortifacients.

The BMA’s views on abortion
This paper does not include recommendations about whether, and if so how, the law should be changed; it aims simply to provide factual information in an objective way. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that the BMA does not start off from a neutral position in this debate. Although representing members with a wide range of views on abortion, the BMA has clear democratic and representative mechanisms for formally establishing policy on such issues, through its Representative Body. Through these procedures, the BMA has repeatedly since the 1970s agreed policy statements supporting the Abortion Act as a “practical and humane piece of legislation” and calling for the legislation to be extended to Northern Ireland.

In 1989, prior to Parliamentary debate on the HFE Act, the Representative Body debated a motion stating that the BMA:

'agrees that in other than the most extreme cases, 24 weeks should be the upper limit for termination of pregnancy, and the figures show that this has already been achieved. It believes that to change the law now may pose legal and professional hazards for doctors.'

The motion was 'accepted as a reference' which means that the general principle was accepted but there was some difficulty with the precise wording. The BMA has not debated abortion time limits since 1989 and so this remains the latest expression of the BMA’s general views in this area.