(Supreme Court of Victoria) Section 62 of the Crimes Act 1928 made it an offence to do certain acts ‘with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman’, specifically in the context of an argument (rejected by the court) that it was a defence if the defendant believed that the child in the womb was already dead.
Held: Martin J, with whom O’Bryan J agreed (Macfarlan J dissented), treated ‘miscarriage’ as synonymous with ‘abortion’ and as referring variously to the expulsion or removal of ‘the contents of a gravid uterus’, the ‘untimely emptying of a uterus which contains the products of a conception’ and ‘the emptying of the contents of the womb’. It was accordingly neither here nor there that the child was already dead.
Judges:
Macfarlan, Martin and O’Bryan JJ
Citations:
[1943] VR 109
Jurisdiction:
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Regina (Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health and Others Admn 18-Apr-2002
The claimant challenged the Order as regards the prescription of the morning-after pill, asserting that the pill would cause miscarriages, and that therefore the use would be an offence under the 1861 Act.
Held: ‘SPUC’s case is that any . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 01 December 2022; Ref: scu.223714
