Abortion is an extremely sensitive and controversial topic, it is frowned upon by many for a variety of reasons, including religious and moral abjection. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a fetus before it reaches the 41st week by taking prescribed medications or by undergoing surgery. Abortion has been legal in England since the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967; under UK law, which includes England, Scotland and Wales (excluding Northern Ireland), abortion can usually only be carried out within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy and carried out by two doctors. Before the advent of the abortion law there were many illegal clandestine abortions performed by unscrupulous doctors or unqualified staff, resulting in around 40 women dying each year from injuries such as haemorrhage or infection. As a result, abortion law was created not only to protect women but for public health reasons. Women today may choose to have an abortion for a variety of reasons, one of those reasons being contraceptive failure. It has been found that over half of women who choose to have an abortion have used a contraceptive method that did not work in the month they became pregnant, so they may choose to have an abortion because of this. With barrier methods such as the male condom providing only 98% and the female condom providing only 95% guarantee when used correctly, it is no wonder why abortion is an option for many when precautionary measures that they have taken fail. Another reason why a woman may choose to have an abortion may be due to undesirable circumstances such as incest or rape. Rape is becoming increasingly prevalent, according to (rape crisis) there are around 85,000 cases on average reported each year in England at... middle of paper... Also contributing to this cost, this money could go towards more health concerns urgent in society and health research Gender-selective abortion is a procedure for couples who have a predisposition to conceive a girl or a boy, it is an expensive IVF procedure called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and costs at least £ 1,950. Moral concerns are raised with this selection process as healthy embryos are discarded to find the preferred gender of choice. CONCLUSION (reformulation of the argument) In conclusion, from all the above mentioned points it can be deduced that abortion today is unjustifiable neither acceptable nor unacceptable due to a variety of circumstances in which abortion can be performed. It can be said that people's opinions are becoming much more liberal compared to the times of the 1800s, when abortion was considered inhumane and unacceptable.