The World - News from Feb. 24, 1987

The father cannot prevent a woman from having an abortion, British High Court Judge Rose Heilbron ruled. The test case involving two Oxford students identified only by initials was brought by a 23-year-old man attempting to prevent his girlfriend from aborting an 18-week-old fetus. The medical evidence rested on whether a fetus of 18 weeks was capable of being born alive, the judge said. The father claimed that if it was, an abortion would amount to killing a child and would be punishable by life imprisonment. The judge said medical evidence indicates that it is impossible to say whether the 18-week-old fetus could survive outside the womb.