Kent Professor of Medical Law and Ethics, Sally Sheldon, discussed the future of Britain’s abortion law at a meeting held at the House of Commons last night.
Professor Sheldon was invited as a panellist by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). She was joined by Ann Furedi, the chief executive of BPAS and Assistant Professor Joanna Erdman who holds the MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy in the Schulich School of Law, at Dalhousie University, Canada.
The discussion, sponsored by Kate Green MP and held in a Committee Room at Westminster, explored the possibilities for decriminalising abortion and finding a better way to regulate it according to the needs of women in the 21st century.
Existing regulation (based on the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act), means that abortion in Britain is a criminal offence. Exemption from prosecution for women and health care professionals is provided by the 1967 Abortion Act. However, women and health care professionals remain open to accusations of failing to meet the legal grounds for abortion and could potentially face a prison sentence if convicted.
During the discussion, attendees considered an alternative Canadian model where abortion has been removed from the criminal statute and is regulated by the same standards as other healthcare procedures.
Professor Sheldon said: ‘The current law regulating abortion is rooted in the ethical values and medical realities of Victorian Britain. Our criminal prohibitions on abortion date back to a time when extra-marital sex was taboo, motherhood was the primary role foreseen for women, and women had not yet achieved the right to vote.
‘Successive governments have failed to revisit the fundamental basis of the law of abortion, leaving us with archaic, fundamentally flawed legislation, containing some of the most onerous criminal sanctions in Europe. For that reason it is wonderful that we’ve been able to have this discussion actually within the Houses of Parliament.’
Professor Sheldon, who teaches Health Care Law and Ethics to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Kent Law School, has published widely in the area of medical ethics and law. As well as her book Beyond Control: Medical Power and Abortion Law, she has co-edited a collection of essays on Feminist Perspectives on Health Care Law and, together with Richard Collier of Newcastle Law School, has co-authored a socio-legal study of fatherhood called Fragmenting Fatherhood. Her current research centres on reproduction and the law.
For more information about Professor Sheldon’s publications, visit her staff profile page