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Live births outside marriage

 

Source: Office for National Statistics – Births in England and Wales

Notes: 

  • A birth within marriage/civil partnership is that of a child born to parents who were lawfully married/in a civil partnership either, a) at the date of the child’s birth, or b) when the child was conceived, even if they later divorced/were granted a civil partnership dissolution or the father/second parent died before the child’s birth.

 

Key dates 
1939 - 1945Second World War
1961
Introduction of the contraceptive pill
1967
Family Planning Act
Made contraception readily available through the NHS
1967
Abortion Act
Legalised abortion under 28 weeks free on the NHS.

 

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