Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2020 to Question 96229 on Abortion: Disability, what annual assessment his Department makes of the named medical condition for abortions under Ground E of the statutory grounds for abortion provided in his Department's annual statistical release on abortion; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the category of disabilities that may be regarded as constituting a serious handicap for the purposes of Ground E is not unreasonably extended.

There is no official definition of seriously handicapped. In 1990, when the grounds for abortion were amended, Parliament decided that doctors were best placed to make these decisions with the woman and her family. It is for Parliament to decide the circumstances under which abortions should take place. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued guidance to doctors ‘Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality in England, Scotland and Wales’ in May 2010. The guidance is intended to assist doctors and other health professionals to support women and their families when a fetal abnormality is diagnosed and to help women to decide, within the constraints of the law, whether or not to have the pregnancy terminated. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/terminationpregnancyreport18may2010.pdf

There is clinical input to the coding of the named medical conditions for abortions under Ground E of the statutory grounds for abortion provided in the annual abortion statistical release.