B 3
At Annex B for the consideration of Members is the Offences Against the Person (Amendment) Bill 1980 which seeks to consolidate and revise the law relating to abortion, child destruction and infanticide.
4
It is also proposed, as part of the current exercise, to amend the Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance (Chapter 231) to suppress advertisements relating to illegal abortion. The proposed amendments are embodied in the Undesirable Medical Advertisements C (Amendment) Bill 1980 at Annex C.
Proposed changes in the criteria for abortion
5
Sections 46 and 47 of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance create specific offences relating to unlawful abortion. Section 47A is essentially a statement of what does not fall within these sections and prescribes the circumstances in which doctors may perform a therapeutic abortion in the interest of a pregnant woman. It provides that pregnancy may be terminated if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion, formed in good faith, that the continuation of pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of injury to her physical or mental health greater than if the pregnancy were terminated. Except in emergency situations such terminations must be performed in hospitals or clinics approved by the Director of Medical and Health Services.
6
! Statistics of the numbers of terminations legally performed between 1973 and 1979 is at Annex D. It will be seen that while the number of terminations has increased, the average rate of 6. 4 per thousand women aged 15-44 in 1979 is still low compared with 10 per thousand in United Kingdom in the comparable age group in 1971. There is also little evidence to support the view that the law has been extensively used by unmarried mothers to terminate unwanted pregnancy. In 1979, about 15% of such terminations were performed on single women compared to a figure of 48% in the United Kingdom in 1971.
CONFIDENTIAL #B
機密