The law before 1967
Before 1967, abortion in England, Scotland and Wales was governed by a patchwork of older laws. The Offences against the Person Act of 1861 made it a crime to procure a miscarriage, and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act of 1929 protected a child capable of being born alive. Doctors could perform an abortion to save a woman’s life, and a court case in 1938, usually called the Bourne case, supported a wider reading that included serious damage to her health. But the law was unclear about what was permitted, and doctors were often cautious about acting.
In practice, many women who wanted to end a pregnancy turned to illegal abortions, sometimes carried out in unsafe conditions, while women with money could often find a sympathetic private doctor. The scale of illegal abortion is hard to measure, and estimates from the period varied widely, so any figure should be treated with caution. Campaigners, doctors and some members of the public argued that the situation was harmful and unequal.
The political path
Reform had been advocated for decades. The Abortion Law Reform Association was founded in 1936 and kept up pressure over the following years. A change came in the mid-1960s, when social attitudes were shifting and Parliament was more willing to consider reform. The Labour government was not willing to make abortion a formal party policy, but ministers were broadly sympathetic and, importantly, allowed parliamentary time for the issue. Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, supported the wider programme of social reform.
The bill itself was a private member’s bill, introduced by David Steel, a young Liberal MP, who had done well in the private members’ ballot, the lottery that gives backbenchers a chance to propose legislation. Its formal name was the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill. The debates were long and often emotional, and the bill was amended during its passage. Supporters argued it would end the dangers of illegal abortion and give doctors clarity; opponents, including many Roman Catholics and other religious groups, argued that it put unborn life at risk and would lead to abortion on demand. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was founded in 1967 amid this controversy. Votes were free votes, not along party lines, and the outcome was considered uncertain at times.
The Act received royal assent on 27 October 1967 and came into force on 27 April 1968.
What the Act allowed
The Act did not create a general right to abortion. Instead, it set out grounds on which a termination could lawfully be carried out by a registered doctor. In summary, two registered medical practitioners had to agree, in good faith, that one of the following applied:
- continuing the pregnancy would involve a greater risk to the woman’s life than ending it;
- continuing it would involve a greater risk of injury to the woman’s physical or mental health than ending it;
- continuing it would involve a greater risk of injury to the physical or mental health of her existing children than ending it; or
- there was a substantial risk that the child, if born, would suffer from physical or mental abnormalities so as to be seriously handicapped.
In assessing the risk to health, doctors could take into account the woman’s actual or reasonably foreseeable environment. This wording gave doctors considerable discretion, and over time it was interpreted broadly. The procedure had to be carried out in a National Health Service hospital or in another approved place, and the Act included a conscientious objection clause, which allowed individuals to decline to take part in most circumstances, except where treatment was needed to save life or prevent grave injury.
The original Act also set a time limit, widely remembered as 28 weeks, tied to the older concept of capability to be born alive. That limit was lowered to 24 weeks in 1990 by later legislation, which also altered some of the details of the grounds. The Act applied to Great Britain; it did not extend to Northern Ireland, where the law remained different for decades.
What changed in practice
After the Act took effect in 1968, the number of lawful abortions in England and Wales rose substantially over the following years, and the number of deaths and injuries from illegal procedures is generally thought to have fallen, although the exact figures are debated. Private clinics and charities that offered services also grew. Local practice varied, and access depended on the attitudes of doctors and on where a woman lived. This unevenness was one of the criticisms made in later decades.
The debate did not end in 1967. Opponents tried repeatedly to reduce the time limit or tighten the grounds, while supporters sought to widen access or to modernise the process. Because the Act sets out conditions rather than a right, and because its wording is open to interpretation, it has remained a subject of political and ethical argument.
Where it fits in 1967
The Abortion Act is often grouped with the Sexual Offences Act, passed a few months earlier, as part of a wave of reforms associated with the “permissive society”, a label that critics used more than supporters. The grouping is partly convenient and partly misleading. The two laws had different sponsors, different arguments and different kinds of support, and both were private members’ bills that depended on the government’s willingness to allow time. What they shared was the context of a government under Harold Wilson that was willing to let Parliament decide matters of conscience, and a public that was changing its attitudes at an uneven pace. Within weeks of the Abortion Act’s passage, attention turned to the pound devaluation, a reminder that social reform sat beside a difficult economic year of change for the government. The Act’s long afterlife has made it one of the lasting parts of the legacy of 1967 in Britain.