Editing Abortion in the United Kingdom (section)

===Guernsey===
The law of [[Guernsey]] allows abortion under the same grounds as in Great Britain: at any time to save the woman's life, prevent grave permanent injury to her health, or in case of significant foetal impairment; and in the first 24 weeks of gestation in case of "risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family".<ref name=gg>[https://www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?documentid=62459 Abortion (Guernsey) Law, 1997 (consolidated text)], Guernsey Legal Resources.</ref> As in Great Britain, the latter ground is considered to allow ''de facto'' elective abortion.

The conditions are specified in the Abortion (Guernsey) Law, 1997. As originally enacted, the law set a gestational limit of 24 weeks in case of foetal impairment and 12 weeks for risk to health greater than terminating the pregnancy, required the approval of two medical practitioners, and required that the abortion take place at [[Princess Elizabeth Hospital]].<ref>[https://www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?documentid=62458 Abortion (Guernsey) Law, 1997], Guernsey Legal Resources.</ref> The law was amended, effective from 2022, to remove the gestational limit for foetal impairment and increase the other limit to 24 weeks, to reduce the required approval to only one medical practitioner, to remove the location requirement, to allow nurses and midwives to perform abortions, and to decriminalise the act of a woman attempting to or succeeding in ending her own pregnancy outside of a medical setting.<ref>[https://www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?documentid=82985 Abortion (Guernsey) (Amendment) Law, 2021], Guernsey Legal Resources.</ref>

The Guernsey law of 1997 and its amendment of 2022 do not apply to [[Alderney]] and [[Sark]],<ref name=gg/> which are also part of the [[Bailiwick of Guernsey]] but continue to apply an earlier law, in French, identical to the Offences against the Person Act 1861 of England and Wales, which does not explicitly mention any legal ground for abortion.<ref>[https://www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?documentid=60341 Law on abortion, 1910] {{in lang|fr}}, Guernsey Legal Resources.</ref> However, the judicial decision ''[[Rex v Bourne]]'' in England and Wales clarified that the law always implicitly allowed abortion at least to save the woman's life, and the decision extended it also to preserve her health.<ref>[https://www.law.utoronto.ca/utfl_file/count/documents/reprohealth/united_kingdom_1938_bourne.pdf ''Rex v. Bourne''], Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, 18–19 July 1938.</ref> It is unclear whether Alderney and Sark apply only the original legal principle or also the extension by the judicial decision.

In practice, abortions are provided in Alderney under the same conditions as in Guernsey, as health services in Alderney operate under Guernsey law.<ref>[https://alderney.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=155537 Billet d'État] (state note), States of Alderney, 20 July 2022.</ref> To clarify the legal situation, in 2022 the [[States of Alderney]] passed an abortion law identical to the one in Guernsey, but it awaits a regulation to establish the effective date.<ref>[https://www.guernseylegalresources.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?documentid=83864 Abortion (Alderney) Law, 2022], Guernsey Legal Resources.</ref>