XN000022-1974-03-27 — Page 37

Wednesday, March 27, 1974

35

The Acting Attorney General continued: "It appears from the

certificates sent to the Director in 1973 that the total of pregnancies

terminated in that year was 184."

He felt it was too early to draw conclusione from such a figure,

taken from one 12-month period only, but "clearly it is not large, and

does not suggest that there has been abuse of the legislation."

Mr. Thornton told the Council that because the figure was small,

and the certificates had been coming in for a little more than a year, the

Government considered that a longer trial period was desirable because

it would enable firmer conclusions to be drawn about the way the law was

operating, and its value and effectiveness.

The Acting Attorney General emphasised that legislation enacted

two years ago had not been intended to legalise abortion in any general way.

The purpose had been, and remained, a limited one → to do no more than

define the terms under which doctors could undertake a therapeutic termination

of pregnancy in certain specified circumstances, and in government, or

approved, hospitals or clinics.

136