Illegal abortion will no longer be ‘homicide’

PERFORMING an illegal abortion here will no longer be classed as “homicide” while bigamy and prostitution will be taken off the list of sexual offences under a crime classification system announced yesterday.

The Central Statistics Office has come up with a new method of categorising crimes and admits that some users will “probably disagree with, or be initially surprised by” some classification decisions.

Among the high-profile changes are that abortion is no longer to be included with homicide offences, which now comprise murder, manslaughter, infanticide, and dangerous driving causing death.