Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

The 1967 Abortion Act fifty years on: Abortion, medical authority and the law revisited

Lee, Ellie J., Sheldon, Sally, Macvarish, Jan (2018) The 1967 Abortion Act fifty years on: Abortion, medical authority and the law revisited. Social Science and Medicine, 212 . pp. 26-32. ISSN 0277-9536. E-ISSN 0277-9536. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.010) (KAR id:67574)

Abstract

The recent 50th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act provides the opportunity to

revisit what has been termed the ‘remarkable authority’ this Act ascribes to doctors.

This paper does so using as its starting point a seminal commentary on this question

by the renowned medical sociologist Sally Macintyre, published in this journal in

1973 as ‘The Medical Profession and the 1967 Abortion Act in Britain’. We revisit

themes from that paper through an analysis of the findings of interviews with 14

doctors who, throughout lengthy careers, have provided abortions and led the

development of the abortion service in England and Wales. We contrast our findings

with Macintyre’s, and argue that our interviews highlight the shifting meaning of

medical authority and medical professionalism. We show that those doctors most

involved in providing abortions place moral value on this work; uphold the authority

of women (not doctors) in abortion decision-making; view nurses and midwives as

professional collaborators; and consider their professional and clinical judgement

impeded by the present law. We conclude that medical sociologists have much to gain

by taking abortion provision as a focus for the further exploration of the shifting meaning of medical authority.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.010
Uncontrolled keywords: England and Wales, abortion, law, medical authority, Sally Macintyre
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Ellie Lee
Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2018 08:35 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 18:24 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/67574 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Lee, Ellie J..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8131-6872
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Sheldon, Sally.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5472-9655
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Macvarish, Jan.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.