In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States, the debate on abortion and its legal status has been reactivated everywhere, including in the UK. Our Abortion Act of 1967, whilst it is on the statue books, making it a degree more secure than the case law that underpinned abortion rights in the US, yet has similarly fragile foundations. It is framed as an exception to the act of 1861 that banned abortions and treated their perpetrators as murderers. Thus abortion is allowed under the 1967 act in exceptional circumstances, for a limited time (currently set at 24 weeks in spite of several attempts to reduce it to 22 or even 18 weeks) and only with the permission of two doctors. Outside this permissive position, it is still illegal. This is not understood by many who see abortion rights in the UK as unassailable, and there have already been comments made in Parliament that indicate some would like to turn the clock back on this under the influence of the Roe v Wade overt