BN 951972Department of Health and Social Security and Scottish Home and Health Department: Surveys of Abortion Patients for the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act (Lane Committee) 1972-1974: Datasets
The Surveys of Abortion Patients for the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act is comprised of data collected from a random sample of women living in England, Scotland and Wales, who had abortions in the Spring of 1972. The data was concentrated on the experience of these women in the process of abortion, including consultations, delays, and quality of treatment.
The main study was preceded by a pilot study which was carried out in February 1972 and covered 10 hospitals in which a total of 90 interviews were attempted. Out of this group of 90, 71 patients were interviewed successfully, some patients were from abroad and were not interviewed as the survey was restricted to UK based patients, others either refused to be interviewed or their doctors were not willing to allow them to be interviewed.
The main survey was carried out during March and April 1972, interviews with 272 patients were held in a total of 27 hospitals. More detail about the sample design covering the selection of hospitals and the selection of patients to interview within the selected hospitals and clinics can be found by referring to the published report, Report of the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act; Vol III - Survey of Abortion Patients for the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act by Ann Cartwright and Susan Lucas. Copies of the survey questionnaires for the pilot and main surveys can also be found in the catalogues of individual datasets.
The data gathered in the survey has been separated into three parts which have been treated as individual datasets covering patient details, consultations with doctors and consultations with other professionals.
The datasets in this series are available to download. Links to individual datasets can be found at piece level.