Legal skills 2 . Explain the differences between the regulation of Essay

Legal skills 2 . Explain the differences between the regulation of abortion in the United Kingdom and the United States of America; and speculate how any reform - Essay Example The Abortion Act of 1967 was modified by the Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990.1 The modifications2 were widely hailed as a gain for the pro-choice movement3 because they established an upper time limit to terminate pregnancy at twenty-four weeks and extended the circumstances in which abortions could be performed to include terminations up until birth in the case of fetal handicap. The effect of the 1990 debates in Parliament over the Acts modification was to entrench in the public and parliamentary consciousness that abortion is permissible prior to viability of the fetus. Today, an abortion is lawful in the United Kingdom if covered by one of four grounds listed in the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990.4 The provisions of the Act allow for an abortion up to twenty-four weeks if approved by two doctors when "the social or environmental or living conditions of either the mother or her existing children are likely to be worsened by the continuation of the pregnancy."5 Furthermore, it tolerates abortion without time restriction on eugenic grounds if "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." Abortions for the most part are financed by the National Health Service under the National Health Service Act of 1977. The Act does place some restrictions on the availability of an abortion. Abortions are only permissible if the pregnancy has not exceeded twenty-four weeks. Beyond the twenty-fourth week, the risk of a grave mental or physical injury must exist before an abortion can be legally performed. The Act also provides physicians with broad authority over a womans ability to terminate. T o be consistent with the Act, an abortion can only be legally performed if two medical practitioners believe in good faith that one of the four grounds set forth in Section 1(1) of the Act has been met. The United