LIVE ISSUE
break the Infant Live Preservation Act 1929 (which is not affected by the 1967 Abortion Act). The 1929 Act prohibits abortion where a child is 'capable of being born alive'. Modern medicine saves the lives of premature babies of ever younger ages. Some jurisprudentialists felt this week that the father was attempting to achieve in the courts what Parliament had failed to, that is, to lower from 28 weeks the age at which there is a prima facie presumption that the child may be born alive. Only a fortnight ago the Bishop of Birmingham's Bill to do this was killed in the House of Lords. But Parliament should think again — the law is repugnant to common feeling. To make matters worse, there is a widespread belief that, in many cases, if not in the present one, there is too much laxity in doctors' giving their opinion that a continued pregnancy would threaten the mother's health. If the 1967 Act cannot be applied as strictly as it was intended to be, and there is no sign that it can, with 172,000 abortions a year, it must be changed. Lives are at stake.
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