The Abortion Act 1967

Sally Sheldon is a professor of law at the University of Bristol and University of Technology Sydney, a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an editor of the journal Social & Legal Studies and Cambridge University Press's Law in Context series and a former trustee of the Abortion Support Network and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. She has published extensively in healthcare law and ethics. She was formerly a professor in Kent Law School, where she worked on the research for this book. Gayle Davis is Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine. She has published widely in the history of medicine and reproductive health, including the recent co-edited volumes, Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services (2019) and The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History (2017). Jane O'Neill is a social historian whose research interests include twentieth-century youth, gender, and sexual behaviour. She has published on the history of courtship, contraception and abortion in journals such as History and edited volumes including Students in Twentieth-Century Britain and Ireland. Clare Parker is an historian who has worked at universities in the UK and Australia. She has published on the history of medicine and the politics of abortion and sexuality. She is also a consultant archivist currently working with the State Library of South Australia.

• 1. Introduction; 2. The Early Years; 3. The Parliamentary Battle for Restrictive Reform; 4. The Battle for Normalisation; 5. The Battle for Legal Meaning; 6. The Battle for Northern Ireland; 7. The Parliamentary Battle for Modernising Reform; 8. A Biography of the 'Great Untouchable'; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

'This ever so readable book brings conceptual clarity and fascinating historical detail to understanding the dynamic nature of an abortion law. The book will be an invaluable guide in post-decriminalisation jurisdictions, like Australia, as health laws replace criminal laws on abortion, also becoming living texts open to contest and interpretation.' Barbara Baird, Associate Professor in Women's and Gender Studies, Flinders University and Co-Convenor South Australian Abortion Action Coalition