Overview:

The Modern Records Centre's collections include material relating to the debate over abortion during the 1960s and 1970s - particularly from around 1979, when the Corrie Bill was first debated in Parliament. Searches for 'abortion'Link opens in a new window and 'Corrie'Link opens in a new window in our online catalogue will identify some of the relevant material.

= This symbol after a link means that it links to catalogue descriptions of the documents (including the reference numbers which will help you to order up the original documents at the MRC).

All of the material listed below is in copyright, so in most cases we are unable to publish digital copies online. Researchers are welcome to look at the original documents in the MRC reading room.

Selected sources:

Abortion and National Abortion Campaign, 1972-1975Link opens in a new window 

Two large files compiled by campaigner Dodie Ellis / Weppler. They include journals, leaflets, circulars, minutes and other organisational material relating to the National Abortion Campaign.

'Breaking Chains', 1977, 1979-1981Link opens in a new window 

Issues of a newspaper produced by the pro-abortion Abortion Law Reform Association.

'Abortion ten years on', 1978Link opens in a new window 

Publication produced by the Birth Control Trust. It includes a series of articles by politicians, campaigners, medical professionals and a clergyman on abortion and the developments in the ten years since the medical procedure was legalised.

National Abortion Campaign and the Campaign Against the Corrie Bill, 1979-1981Link opens in a new window 

The Andrew Whitehead collection includes 13 files of leaflets, bulletins and other items of ephemera relating to the debate over abortion and the rights of women following the introduction of the Corrie Bill. Most are pro-abortion, but the collection does also include material from several anti-abortion groups.

'Black women and abortion', [1979]Link opens in a new window 

Leaflet produced by the Black Women's Group, Brixton. It includes comments on broader attacks on the black family and enforced sterilization by medical professionals.

 

National Abortion Campaign leaflet produced in response to the Corrie Bill, c.1979, included in a file of NAC publicity materialLink opens in a new window.