Abortion

• Until 1967, terminating a pregnancy was illegal for Britain. Therefore, dangerous ‘backstreet abortions’ were carried out by people without proper medical training.
• Growing liberalisation of attitudes in the 1960s led to calls for change.
• The 1967 Abortion Act legalised abortion if the child was going to have serious disabilities or the mother was at risk of serious physical or mental harm if the pregnancy continued.
• In 1968 the latest stage of pregnancy at which an abortion could be carried out was 28 weeks, although this has been lowered over time as medicine has advanced.