Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provisions of the Abortion Act 1967.

Under the Abortion Act 1967, women have early access to safe, legal, high quality abortion services. There were 194,668 abortions performed under the provisions of the Abortion Act in England and Wales in 2017, with 98% of abortions being funded by the National Health Service.

Abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance. Proposals for legislative change are a matter for backbenchers to bring forward and decisions are made on the basis of free votes.