HC Deb 24 November 2000 vol 357 c354W
Mr. Gummer

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent advice he has taken and from whom on the point at which pregnancy can be said to begin. [138891]

Yvette Cooper

The accepted legal and medical view is that a pregnancy begins at implantation. This has been the policy of successive Governments and is based on advice given to the Department by the Attorney-General in 1983, about the legal position under the Abortion Act 1967.