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The Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill [HL] is a private member’s bill introduced by Lord Shinkwin (Conservative). The Bill received its first reading in the House of Lords on 25 May 2016, and is scheduled to receive its second reading on 21 October 2016.

The Bill seeks to amend section 1 of the Abortion Act 1967; section 1 details the conditions, or grounds, under which a medical termination of a pregnancy can occur. The Bill would remove one of these grounds, “that 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”, from the 1967 Act.

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