1967 Abortion Act Reflected Social Changes

Fight for the right to choose when and whether to have children

- Sarah Wrack

Fifty years ago this month the 1967 Abortion Act was signed into law, coming into effect six months later. The law legalised abortion of foetuses up to 28 weeks gestation (reduced to 24 in 1990) and within certain circumstances. Since that time millions of women have benefited from access to free, safe and legal abortion - lives have undoubtedly been saved and transformed.

Prior to 1968, up to 100,000 illegal abortions were thought to take place every year.

Women, who generally had very limited access to reliable contraception, were forced to take desperate measures to terminate unwanted pregnancies. They bought unidentified and often poisonous substances, attempted to self-abort using household objects, or visited ‘backstreet’ establishments for procedures often carried out by people with no medical qualifications.

Abortion was the leading cause of maternal deaths with hundreds dying each year and 35,000 treated by the NHS for often life-changing complications.

The pressure for legalisation of abortion partly came from growing concern about these backstreet abortions and their consequences. But it was also a reflection of wider social changes and struggles that were taking place.