Until 1970, the performance of abortion in Singapore, like many other members of the British Commonwealth, was governed by laws based on legislation passed in the nineteenth century in Victorian England. It constituted a criminal act punishable under sections 312–316 of the Penal Code and could only be defended on the plea that the abortion was caused in good faith to safeguard the life of the woman concerned. Under such prohibitive laws, some pregnant women had no alternative but to resort to back-lane illegal abortions as a means of terminating unwanted pregnancies. Though the incidence of such criminally induced abortions performed during any period of time will always remain a mystery, the existence of such abortions is common knowledge among the public and has been confirmed by cases clinically diagnosed as “abortions with sepsis” in Kandang Kerbau Hospital. Moreover, there were numerous occasions when pregnant women approached the Family Planning Association for an abortion but were turned down.

During the early days of the national programme, some embarrassment was caused by women patients who approached the clinic staff of the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board (SFPPB) to terminate their pregnancies on account of contraceptive failure, especially from intrauterine devices (IUDs). This was particularly so in the case of women who had adopted family planning with IUD as a method of preventing further childbirth rather than spacing their children. Nothing could be done to alleviate the suffering of the women and they were persuaded to continue with their pregnancies. It was felt that this category of contraceptive failure should merit sympathetic consideration for induced abortion had the law permitted such termination of pregnancies.

MOVE TOWARDS LEGAL ABORTION

The review of the government policy concerning induced abortion was undertaken by the SFPPB soon after its establishment in January 1966. The role of induced abortion in the context of the family planning programme within the overall population control policy was discussed in some detail by the Board. It was generally agreed that induced abortion should be made available as a complement to this programme but not as an alternative to the other less drastic and preventive methods of family planning. By 1967, the Medical Committee of the SFPPB had resolved by a simple majority decision that failed sterilization and failed contraception could be accepted as criteria for legally induced abortion.