§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will give a breakdown by regional health authority of the numbers of abortions performed in the latest year for which figures are available in pregnancies of more than 24 weeks' gestation; if she will indicate the grounds upon which those abortions were performed; and, specifically, if she will indicate where appropriate the nature of any possible handicap from which the baby might have been suffering.
§ Mr. SackvilleI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Field) on 29 June 1992 at columns437–38.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance has been issued by her Department88W about the nature of those handicaps which might be considerd to be so severe as to fall within the provision of the existing legislation that abortions might in those cases be performed up until birth; and, specifically, whether dwarfism or acondraplasia might reasonably be considered as grounds for such late abortions.
§ Mr. SackvilleDecisions as to what constitutes "substantial risk" and "serious handicap" within the ground specified in the Abortion Act 1967, as amended, are matters for the clinical judgment of the doctor concerned taking into account all of the facts and circumstances of each case.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she has yet received a formal notification of the abortion in a pregnancy of 35 weeks' gestation, performed at St. George's hospital, Tooting over the weekend of 5 and 6 February; and if she will indicate the name of the doctor performing that abortion and the grounds upon which it was authorised.
§ Mr. SackvilleInformation provided to the chief medical officer on abortion notification forms under regulation 4 of the Abortion Regulations 1991 may not be disclosed because of restrictions set out in regulation 5.