Abortion in the United Kingdom

Common card · No. 309868

Abortion in the United Kingdom is regulated under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967 in Great Britain and the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No.2) Regulations 2020 in Northern Ireland. Across the United Kingdom, abortion is permitted on the grounds of: risk to the life of the pregnant woman; preventing grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health; risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family (up to a term limit of 24 weeks of gestation); or substantial risk that, if the child were born, they would "suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped". The third ground is typically interpreted liberally with regards to mental health to create a de facto elective abortion service; 98% of the approximately quarter-million abortions performed each year in Great Britain are done so for that reason. In Northern Ireland since 2020, abortion is also permitted within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy...

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