TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY

Medically directed miscarriage, achieved using pharmacological or surgical means, before the fetus is independently viable.

Legal requirements

The 1967 Abortion Act allows termination before 24 weeks of gestation if:

• It reduces the risk to a woman's life or
• It reduces the risk to her physical or mental health or
• It reduces the risk to physical or mental health of her existing children or
• The baby is at substantial risk of being seriously mentally or physically handicapped.

There is no upper limit on gestational time if there is:

• Risk to the mother's life
• Risk of grave, permanent injury to the mother's physical/mental health (allowing for reasonably foreseeable circumstances)
• Substantial risk that, if the child were born, it would suffer such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped. Such TOPs must be conducted in an NHS hospital.