§ Mr. Delwyn Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he
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RESIDENTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES 1977 LEGAL ABORTIONS BY STATUTORY GROUND AND GESTATION WEEKS Numbers and percentages Gestation period (weeks) Statutory grounds† Under 16 16–19 20–23 24 and over Not stated Total 1 (with other) … 752 34 7 6 41 840 89.5% 4.0% 0.8% 0.7% 4.91% 100% 2 … … … 78,510 3,245 698 132 2,933 85,518 91.8% 3.8% 0.82% 0.15% 3.4% 100% 3 (with other except 1) 13,751 386 89 21 587 14,834 92.7% 2.6% 0.60% 0.14% 4.0% 100% 4 (with 2) … … 1,098 147 116 23 90 1,474 74.5% 10.0% 7.9% 1.6% 6.1% 100% 5 and 6 … … 6 1 2 1 1 11 55% 9% 18% 9% 9% 100% All grounds … 94,117 3,813 912 183 3,652 102,677 91.7% 3.7% 0.89% 0.18% 3.6% 100% Notes: Calculated as the number of completed weeks between last menstrual period and date of operation. † Grounds as listed in schedule 2 of the Abortion Regulations 1968: 1 Risk to life of woman. 2 Risk of injury to physical or mental health of woman. 3 Risk of injury to physical or mental health of existing child(ren). 4 Substantial risk of child being born abnormal. 5 In emergency—to save life of woman. 6 In emergency—to prevent grave permanent injury to physical or mental health of woman. plans to provide for the registration of births in Welsh in respect of children of Welsh parents born in England.
§ Sir George YoungNo. The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 requires a birth to be recorded in a register kept for the sub-district in which the child was born. Regulations made by the Registrar-General and approved by my right hon. Friend prescribe the form of the register and the manner of registration of births in England. It would not be practicable to prescribe a bilingual form of register in Welsh and English to be used for recording the births which occur in sub-districts in England. In any case, registrars in England cannot be expected to write or understand Welsh.