In the UK, terminations of pregnancy (abortions) are only legal if they are covered by one of the five clauses of the 1967 Abortion Act. In practice, two doctors must sign the relevant form (called certificate A) before the treatment to terminate the pregnancy is started. They are required to certify under which clause the individual woman's circumstances permit termination of the pregnancy.

The five clauses are that:

A. The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.

B. The termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

C. The pregnancy has NOT exceeded its 24th week and that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

D. The pregnancy has NOT exceeded its 24th week and that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing child(ren) of the family of the pregnant woman.

E. There is substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

The vast majority of terminations (nearly 90%) are performed under clause C, the so-called 'social clause', with another substantial group under clause D. Only about 3% come under the other categories.

Because there is clear evidence that a pregnancy is 'worse for your physical health' than a termination carried out at an early stage of pregnancy, it can be argued that clause C applies to any woman. Doctors might, however, be unhappy from the point of view of the woman's future mental health about signing the form for a woman who is clearly being persuaded by someone else to have a termination that she does not, herself, wish to have.

Although clauses C and D allow terminations up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, in practice there are very few NHS hospitals willing to undertake terminations in these categories as late as this. Some stop at 12 weeks, some at 14, some at 16 weeks. At Addenbrooke's (The Rosie) , the absolute time limit is 18 weeks. Between 18 and 24 weeks, women might be able to have terminations at one of the pregnancy advisory charities. In some circumstances, this might be paid for by the NHS (Marie Stopes; British Pregnancy Advisory Service).

The place in which a termination takes place is also governed by the law - it must happen in premises 'licensed' under the Act. This is the reason why even the swallowing of a tablet to initiate a medical termination has to take place at the hospital or clinic.

Following a termination of pregnancy, the doctor responsible is required by law to notify the Department of Health of the circumstances involved within seven days of the procedure.

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Last updated: 23 February 2006
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