“A Fifth Freedom” or “Hideous Atheistic Expediency”? The Medical Community and Abortion Law Reform in Scotland, <i>c</i>.1960–1975

TLDR

Scotland’s abortion law was already more permissive than England’s, with few prosecutions, yet the boundary between criminal and non‑criminal abortion remained vague and medical uncertainty persisted, prompting debate over whether reform was necessary. The bill aimed to amend and clarify the law governing termination of pregnancy by registered medical practitioners. The 1967 Abortion Act became the first unified abortion law covering Scotland, England and Wales.

Abstract

The purpose of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, published on 15 June 1966, was to amend and clarify the law relating to termination of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner. When David Steel, a young Liberal MP from the Scottish Borders, put this bill forward, some suggested that a Scottish politician had no need to introduce abortion reform since Scots law was already satisfactory in this regard. Certainly, abortion law in Scotland was more flexible than its English counterpart, and the number of prosecutions few. The line between criminal and non-criminal abortion was, however, just as indistinct, with great medical uncertainty in this area. On becoming law, the 1967 Abortion Act was the first piece of abortion-related legislation to cover Scotland, England and Wales collectively. None the less, for a variety of legal and moral reasons, abortion policy and practice continued to differ on either side of the Border.