Abortion (Hansard, 22 March 1990)

§ Mrs. Ann Winterton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to introduce regulations under the provisions of the Abortion Act to require those charitable pregnancy counselling agencies which refer women for abortions to keep records of the numbers of such women they refer in any given year.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
Pregnancy advice bureaux are required to maintain registers which show, inter alia,730W whether women are referred for abortion. These registers are inspected by the Departments' investigative officers in their inspection visits.

§ Mr. Alton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will define "seriously handicapped" as used in statutory ground 4 of the Abortion Act 1967.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
The opinion as to whether an abortion is justified in terms of ground 4, or any other ground, of the Abortion Act 1967 is for two registered medical practitioners to form in good faith, in the light of their clinical judgment of all the particular circumstances of the individual case.

§ Mr. Alton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines his Department has issued on abortions after 24 weeks' gestation; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
When it became clear in 1985 that the consensus of the relevant professional bodies about the point at which a foetus could be said to be viable had changed in the light of medical and scientific developments to 24 weeks' gestation, the Department made it a condition of approval for those private sector clinics licensed to carry out abortions over 20 weeks that no abortions were carried out over 24 weeks' gestation. In addition, that view was drawn to the attention of clinicians working in both the private sector and in the NHS. There has been a significant reduction in recent years in the number of abortions after 24 weeks. Only 22 were carried out in England and Wales in 1988.

§ Mr. Alton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department has issued any instructions to hospitals and private abortion clinics regarding the implications of Justice Brookes's recent ruling on the meaning of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
The question of whether a child is capable of being born alive is for the court to decide in any particular case on the basis of the evidence before it.