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Government loses abortion battle
2011-04-20 17:43:56
20 April 2011 Last updated at 19:30 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Government loses abortion battle By Dominic Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News Government loses battle over abortion figures at the High Court Continue reading the main story Related Stories Late abortion tribunal challenge 'Fight continues' on abortions Late abortions reasons revealed
The Department of Health has lost a court battle to keep secret some details on abortion statistics.
The government was challenging an Information Tribunal decision but data on late abortions must now be disclosed.
The court case follows an application by an anti-abortion group, the ProLife Alliance, for the publication of all data on abortion in England and Wales.
The Department of Health is considering whether to appeal against the ruling.
It said in a statement: "The Department will now consider the implications of this judgment and the options available."
Speaking outside the High Court, Josephine Quintavalle of the ProLife Alliance said: "The resistance of the Department of Health is extraordinary."
Protracted 'battle'The case dates back nearly a decade, to the release of statistics on late abortions carried out in 2001.
Abortion on what is called "social" grounds is only legal in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
But the 1967 Abortion Act makes it legal to abort a foetus right up to birth if there is a substantial risk of "serious" physical or mental abnormality.
Up until 2003 the Department of Health published statistics on these late abortions, even when only one or two cases were involved.
But the publication of the figures in 2002 sparked an outcry when it became clear that one termination was carried out on a baby with a cleft lip and palate.
Critics argued that a relatively simple surgical procedure can now repair cleft palates, and anti-abortion groups argued the rules were being flouted to weed out "less than perfect" babies.
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