Abortion - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition abortion

Definition :

Abortion, a miscarriage, or the premature expulsion of the contents of the womb before the term of gestation is completed.

By the (English) Offences against the Person Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. C. 100), s. 58, the unlawful administration of drugs or unlawful use of instruments, by a pregnant woman to herself, or (whether she be with child or not) by any person to her, with intent to procure miscarriage, is made felony, punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court. A person charged under this s. may be convicted under the (English) Infant Life (Preservation) Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo 5, c. 34). By s. 59 of the Act of 1861, the unlawful procuring of drug or instrument with the intent that it may be used to procure miscarriage is a misdemeanour whether the woman be with child or not. Earlier Acts (see, e.g., 43 Geo. 3, c. 59) made the offence a capital felony, but applied only in case of the woman being quick with child. A woman can be convicted of conspiracy to procure her own miscarriage, R. vWhit-church, (1890) 24 QBD 420, or with aiding and abetting the commission of the offence by another, R. v. Sockett, (1908) 72 JP 428.

As to the 'common practice of inducing premature labour in certain cases of disease,' see. Tayl. Med. Jur.

Abortion, means the spontaneous or artificially induced expulsion of an embryo or foetus, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 5.

Means no more than the expulsion of a fetus before it is capable of living. In this sense it is a synonym of miscarriage. With respect to human beings, however it has long been used to refer to an internationally induced miscarriage as distingui-shed from one resulting naturally or by accident. There has been some tendency to use the word to mean a criminal miscarriage and there would be distinct advantages in assigning this meaning to it; but there are so many references to lawful abortion or justification for abortion that it is necessary to speak of 'criminal abortion' or the 'crime of abortion' to emphasize the element of culpability, Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law, 186-87, 3rd Edn. 1982.