eMJA: The King versus Aleck Bourne

History

The King versus Aleck Bourne

Caroline M de Costa

MJA 2009; 191 (4): 230-231

The case that established the lawfulness of terminating pregnancy to preserve women’s health

Aleck W Bourne (4 Jun 1886 – 27 Dec 1974)

“I . . . decided to bring forward a test case, in which there would be no real danger to life . . . but in which one might strongly suspect great danger to health. I was also concerned to establish in the eyes of the Law that mental health was just as important as physical health, and in certain cases perhaps even more so.”4

Europe, July 1938: Hitler and his Nuremberg rallies are gaining strength; invasion of Czechoslovakia seems imminent; German concentration camps are under construction; and Chamberlain is seeking appeasement. Meanwhile, in London, the Old Bailey criminal court is staging an unusual trial. In the dock of the austere Edwardian building stands Mr Aleck Bourne, FRCS, FRCOG, Consultant Gynaecologist to London’s St Mary’s Hospital, charged under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 with unlawfully using an instrument to procure an abortion.1

Following the introduction of the harsh measures of the 1861 Act, prosecutions for abortion had been relatively common.2 However, in virtually all cases the defendants were women with little or no medical training, who performed abortions for small fees — so-called backstreet abortionists.3 At any one time, around 50 women convicted of the crime were incarcerated for up to 14 years in London’s Holloway Prison. Motivation was not necessarily purely financial. One woman said, “I knew it was against the law but I didn’t think it was wrong. Women have to help each other”.2

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