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0 - Page 2 of 2 - Protection of Conscience Project Library
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Year: 1969

The Abortion Act

T.L.T. Lewis

British Medical Journal, BMJ
British Medical Journal

Extract

The part played by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the framing of the Abortion Act is familiar. The College aimed to make it legal to terminate a pregnancy only on medical grounds . . . Moreover, we wished to preserve the right of a doctor to refuse to participate in the treatment of any case to which he had an objection on grounds of conscience: hence the famous “conscience clause.” . . . we did not expect a very great change in practice . . . How wrong we were….

Lewis TLT.  The Abortion Act.  Br Med J. 1969 January 25; 1(5638): 241–242

(Editorial) Demand for Abortion

British Medical Journal

British Medical Journal, BMJ
British Medical Journal

Extract
. . .at the present rate and with no further increase in demand the annual number of abortions in England and Wales would be at least 35,000. He compared this demand with an estimate from the Ministry of Health and Registrar General’s Office of 1,600 therapeutic abortions in 1958 and 2,800 in 1962. The public have thus endorsed the Act and are asking doctors to implement it in a liberal way. . . . It is apparent that the Abortion Act has brought many people what they wanted-namely, a more liberal attitude towards the termination of pregnancy. . . The number of unwanted pregnancies indicated by the latest figures underlines the need for all doctors working in the National Health Service to provide adequate and accurate advice on contraception.

BMJ. (Editorial) Demand for Abortion. Br Med J. 1969;1(5638):199-200.