4 In addition, a body of literature has investigated the role of the medical profession within abortion law reform, and the degree to which the law has influenced, and been interpreted within, medical practice. 3 Other commentators have focused on the political manoeuvring surrounding the 1967 Abortion Act, often as a case study in the role of pressure groups in shaping sexual politics. For example, historians of sexuality have interpreted abortion law reform as part of a whole raft of legislation in the 1960s, including homosexual law reform and the revision of divorce law, which redefined the relationship of the State and the law to the moral domain of the private citizen. 2 Thereafter, a range of more nuanced approaches have been advanced. It was largely produced by abortion law reform activists and sympathizers to stress the significant advantages accruing from an end to surreptitious and expensive criminal abortions, and to praise the importance of the Abortion Law Reform Association (hereafter ALRA) within the process of legal reform. Early writing on the history of abortion and the 1967 Abortion Act generally subscribed to an “heroic” interpretation of events. Several broad strands of interpretation may be detected within the literature. The sexual politics surrounding abortion law reform has, in recent years, attracted increasing attention from historians, sociologists and political scientists. 1 None the less, for a variety of legal and moral reasons, abortion policy and practice continued to differ on either side of the Border.
On becoming law, the 1967 Abortion Act was the first piece of abortion-related legislation to cover Scotland, England and Wales collectively. The line between criminal and non-criminal abortion was, however, just as indistinct, with great medical uncertainty in this area. Certainly, abortion law in Scotland was more flexible than its English counterpart, and the number of prosecutions few. 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. 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.
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