§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 13 May (WA 17), why information on the number of women refused an abortion because their particular circumstances do not fit the criteria of the Abortion Act 1967 is not collected centrally; and whether they have any plans to correct this. [HL4432]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathIf two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith, that an abortion is justified within the terms of the Abortion Act, the Act requires a certificate of opinion to be completed. If an abortion is performed, the Act also requires that a notice of the termination be sent to the Chief Medical Officer. From this notice, data on abortions are collected.
Neither the Act nor the regulations require information on the number of women refused an abortion to be collected. We have no plans to start to collect these data.
59WA
§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 13 May (WA 18), under which sections of the Abortion Act 1967 selective reduction of pregnancies have been performed in the past five years. [HL4433]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe information requested is in the table.
Numbers of cases with selective terminations by statutory ground, England and Wales, 1996–2000 Statutory Grounds A B C D E 1996 0 1 29 0 29 1997 0 0 28 0 25 1998 1 13 28 1 22 1999 0 8 18 0 19 2000 0 8 9 0 20 A The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.
B The termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
C The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
D The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing child(ren) of the family of the pregnant woman.
E There is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.