To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the basis was for his Department's estimate of the number of illegal abortions contained in paragraph 2.4 of the partial regulatory impact assessment on the Termination of Pregnancy Bill of Session 2006-07; and if he will make a statement. (241141)

As stated in paragraph 2.4 of the partial regulatory impact assessment (PRIA), this estimate came from the Lane Committee report (the report of the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act set up under the chairmanship of Mrs Justice Lane and presented to Parliament in 1974) which found evidence that between 20,000 and 60,000 illegal abortions were carried out annually before the 1967 Act came into force. Therefore, in the PRIA we considered 20,000 to be a realistic minimum estimate. Furthermore, during the period 1964 to 1966 (prior to the Abortion Act) 98 women (32 a year) died as a result of illegal abortions.