REX v. BOURNE

Legal abortion for mental health indications

“…For instance, some specify rape as a separate justification, but this is usually absorbed into a general mental health indication. In Britain, for example, before enactment of the internationally reformative Abortion Act 1967, the courts had accepted legality of abortion to prevent a pregnant woman physically capable of safe delivery from becoming ba mental wreckQ [3]. The 1967 Act does not address rape, but provides that abortions shall be lawful when doctors are of the opinion bformed in good faithQ that continuation of pregnancy would risk injury bto the physical or mental health of the pregnant womanQ [4].…”

The King versus Aleck Bourne

“…Very familiar with the disastrous consequences of unsafe abortion for many women, Bourne had previously performed, without publicity, a small number of “therapeutic” abortions he believed to be justified on strong medical grounds. He now felt an urgent need to test the law in court, and was prepared to risk conviction to do so 4 …”

“…A week later, Bourne himself wrote to the Lancet : “The Attorney General admitted that abortion is legally recognised when life is in danger. Now we know it is also admitted when there is serious danger to health … the majority of the profession would feel they are on safer ground if the precedent just established were incorporated in a new Act, passed in days when much more knowledge of medicine, surgery and psychology is available than was the case in 1861” 4 . In the same issue, another writer called for “the law [to be] amended in an open and straightforward way to meet the demands of justice and humanity” 7 .…”

“…Interestingly, Bourne himself did not support the introduction of the 1967 Act. He had written in 1938 that: “I would not have it believed that I have worked for a loose interpretation of the law”, 4 and after 1967 he campaigned for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, believing the new legislation to be too liberal. As noted in his obituary, “he never lacked the courage to express in public views which he held with great conviction and sincerity” 5 .…”

The new ethics of abortion

“…The Bourne judgment of 1938 aYrmed that if an abortion was performed because the continuance of the pregnancy would make the woman a "physical or mental wreck" the doctor was "preserving the life of the mother". 2 Although many doctors still refused to sanction abortion, by 1967 it has been estimated that almost 10,000 abortions a year were being provided by NHS gynaecologists. In the private sector, abortion was emerging as a lucrative source of income for those prepared to exploit desperate women by charging high fees.…”