The Guardian view on 50 years of legal abortion: let’s finish the work | Editorial

David Steel’s act was a job half done. Abortion is not a crime, it’s a matter of health

It is 50 years on Friday since David Steel’s abortion act became law. It did not come into force until the following April. In those six months, it is likely that around 70 women died from sepsis or some other cause resulting from illegal abortion: in the previous decade, it claimed at least 150 lives a year, the biggest single cause of maternal mortality. Activists in a campaign that began in the 1930s toasted victory with champagne. But one veteran, who had had an illegal abortion herself, dampened the celebrations. They should be drinking half-glasses, she said, for the job was only half done.

Nonetheless, in the past 50 years millions of women have benefited from access to safe abortion. It has transformed the future for many girls and women – young women in particular, for the peak age for abortion is 19; it is also disproportionately in demand in poorer parts of England and Wales. There are now around 200,000 abortions recorded each year, but almost all of them – 92% – take place in the first trimester of pregnancy. No one likes carrying out an abortion, says the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, but the alternative – illegal, unsafe abortion – is worse.

Related: Jeremy Corbyn backs call for abortion clinic buffer zones

Continue reading... October 26, 2017 at 11:23PM