Page:Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 (UKPGA Geo5-19-20-34 qp).pdf/1

 [19 & 20

CHAPTER 34.

An Act to amend the law with regard to the destruction of children at or before birth.

E it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1.—(1) Subject as hereinafter in this subsection provided, any person who, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by any wilful act causes a child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother, shall be guilty of felony, to wit, of child destruction, and shall be liable on conviction thereof on indictment to penal servitude for life:

Provided that no person shall be found guilty of an offence under this section unless it is proved that the act which caused the death of the child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, evidence that a woman had at any material time been pregnant for a period of twenty-eight weeks or more shall be primâ facie proof that she was at that time pregnant of a child capable of being born alive.

2.—(1) A court of quarter sessions shall not have jurisdiction to inquire of, hear, or determine any indictment for an offence under this Act, or for an attempt to commit any such offence. 1