Abortion Act 1967

(asked on 11th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will review the use of the term handicapped in section 1(b) of the Abortion Act 1967.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 19th October 2017

We expect clinicians to follow national guidelines and standards. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists produced updated clinical guidance in the 2010 Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality. The guidance covers a number of issues including management of women in relation to termination of pregnancy and those who chose to give birth.

The guidance highlights that women and their partners will need as much information as possible on the implications of the diagnosis, that all staff involved in the care of a woman or couple facing a possible termination of pregnancy must adopt a nondirective, non-judgemental and supportive approach and women must not feel pressurised to make a quick decision. The decision by a woman to continue her pregnancy must be fully supported and it should not be assumed that, even in the presence of an obviously fatal fetal condition, a woman will choose to have a termination.

As with other matters of conscience, abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance and allows Members to vote according to their moral, ethical or religious beliefs. It is accepted Parliamentary practice that proposals for changes in the law on abortion come from back-bench members.

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