Changes to legislation: There are currently no known outstanding effects for
the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. (See end of Document for details)
Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929
1929 CHAPTER 34 19 and 20 Geo 5
An Act to amend the law with regard to the destruction of children at or before
birth. [10th May 1929]
1 Punishment for child destruction.
(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.
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1 Reference to penal servitude for life to be construed as reference to imprisonment for life or any
shorter term: Criminal Justice Act 1948 (c. 58), s. 1(1)
2 Prosecution of offences.
(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F1
(2) Where upon the trial of any person for the murder or manslaughter of any child, or
for infanticide, or for an offence under section fifty-eight of the Offences against
the M1Person Act 1861 (which relates to administering drugs or using instruments
to procure abortion), the jury are of opinion that the person charged is not guilty of
murder, manslaughter or infanticide, or of an offence under the said section fifty-eight,
as the case may be, but that he is shown by the evidence to be guilty of the felony
