GS Banwell
Extract
In the part of the home counties in which I practise as a consultant gynaecologist abortion in early pregnancy is in fact available on request, contrary to the intentions of Parliament. . .Since it can (be shown statistically that in terms of the risk of death termination in early pregnancy for a healthy woman is a lesser risk than that of bearing a child, the legal case for abortion on request was established. . . Doctors who decline to abort a woman in early pregnancy and who do not plead conscientious objection are liable to criminal prosecution under the current Act . . .The Abortion (Amendment) Bill merely seeks to reword the code using phrases such as, “grave” or “serious” risk. Rather than constitute a threat to professional freedom, it would release doctors from the duplicity inherent in the present badly worded Act.
Banwell G. (Correspondence) Abortion (Amendment) Bill. Br Med J. 1975;3(5975):99.