Late abortion referrals case ruled legal

A charity that referred a woman seeking a late abortion to a clinic abroad did not break the law, an inquiry has concluded.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) launched an investigation into the handling of late abortion cases by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, following newspaper allegations.

The Sunday Telegraph alleged that BPAS was illegally sending women to Spain to have abortions. The paper said that the charity had referred a woman who wished to abort a 26-week-old foetus.

The legal limit for an abortion in the UK is 24 weeks, unless the mother’s life is in danger or the baby would suffer a severe mental of physical disability. BPAS does provide women with details of other countries that will carry out abortion, if their pregnancy has progressed beyond that stage.

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, concluded that BPAS had not broken the law. However, he said that “insufficient procedures” had been used by BPAS in its handling of late abortion cases.

The report criticised the charity for providing the number of a Spanish clinic “too readily” and not providing women with appropriate advice before seeking a late abortion.

The report made a number of recommendations for BPAS, including the revision of protocol for late abortion cases; arranging for all calls concerning late abortions to be passed to an experienced abortion counsellor; and establishing a system to monitor the quality of advice given by call centre staff.

BPAS has been asked to respond to the recommendations by the end of October.

The CMO also suggested a number of recommendations to all abortion service providers, following the investigation, including the development of a national best practice protocol for dealing with late abortion cases and a review of training needs.

BPAS welcomed the CMO report. Chief Executive Ann Furedi said: “We especially welcome the recommendation that a national best practice protocol for dealing with late abortion cases should be developed and be adopted by the NHS and all independent sector abortion providers The real scandal of late abortions is that many women are failed by the poor provision for late abortion that exists in many areas.”

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: ”The Department of Health has no reason to doubt that BPAS provides a good, safe and legal abortion service under the Abortion Act 1967 and therefore sees no reason why it should not continue to provide this service to women.”

However, Julia Millington of the ProLife Alliance said: ”On the basis of the CMOs criticisms alone, one wonders how any country would entrust women’s health to such an organisation. And yet we read Public Health Minister, Caroline Flint, stating enthusiastically in the DoH press release that she has ‘no reason to doubt that BPAS provides a good, safe and legal abortion service’. She is ignoring the reality of the situation and glossing over the CMOs comments, particularly in regard to late abortion, where it is suggested that there is need of urgent review.

“It is not enough to say that a woman can seek an abortion abroad; she cannot be referred for something which is illegal in the country to which she is referred. That is the basis of the legal complaint, and it does not appear to have been addressed.”

(KMcA/SP)