Home | Ethics | Some points to make in writing to the PM or your MP regarding abortion liberalisation

Ethics

Some points to make in writing to the PM or your MP regarding abortion liberalisation

Numbers of abortions in England and Wales (198,499) and Scotland (13,703) in 2007 were the highest ever
The government's policy of condoms, post-coital contraception and values-free sex education is not bringing down the abortion rate which is now amongst the very highest in Europe
A Communicate Research Poll in October 2005 found that 81% of those who expressed an opinion believe that ways should be found of reducing the 200,000 abortions performed each year in Britain.
Rather than making abortion even more widely available by allowing nurse-led medical abortion in polyclinics and GP surgeries, Parliament should be looking for legislative and social change which brings abortion rates down.
Giving evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee inquiry last October, public health minister Dawn Primarolo told MPs there were no plans to change regulations to allow nurses to perform abortions or to change rules that require the signatures of two doctors. She added that 'The Department of Health's view and the advice to me is . . . that the act works as intended and doesn't require further amendment at the present time'.
Women with unplanned pregnancies need the time, space, information and support necessary to make a fully informed choice. Many women feel they have no choice but abortion, or end their pregnancies because of covert or overt pressure from partners, friends or family members. Allowing abortion on request would intensify this pressure.

The requirement for two signatures is a medico-legal one. It reflects Parliament's recognition in 1967 (not altered in 1990) that any doctor facing a woman requesting abortion has two patients to consider, and that it is being proposed intentionally to end the life of the more vulnerable one. The Act never made abortion legal; it conferred upon doctors a possible defence against illegality under the Offences against the Person Act.
In the requirement for two signatures, and as, for example, with cremation certificates, the two doctors are expected to 'police' each other. Properly performed, there would be the incidental benefit of two opportunities for counseling.
That the profession at large has failed in this, and that the process has often become a sham, is not a reason for removing this provision from law. Rather, the law must be respected and enforced. This would offer protection, as intended, to the baby, to the woman, and to the doctors involved.
The decision by the BMA last year to recommend removing the need for two doctors' signatures considered only safety issues and not the medico legal issue. Furthermore it applied only to first trimester abortions.

The push for nurses and midwives doing abortion is a result of the escalating abortion rate, and because of increasing reluctance of doctors to be involved. Instead efforts should be directed at reducing the number of abortions.
The BMA is opposed to nurses doing abortion. In June 2007 the British Medical Association voted by 59-41% against allowing trained nurses and midwives to perform abortions.
Allowing nurses to do abortions will deepen divisions between nurses opposed to abortion and those not opposed.
The recent case of Manon Jones tragically highlighted some of the dangers of medical abortion
Medical abortion is not as safe as is commonly assumed and it is not always effective. Failed and incomplete abortions require surgery. In trials, almost all women using mifepristone for medical abortions experienced abdominal pain or uterine cramping; and a significant number experienced nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. Vaginal bleeding or spotting lasts on average 9-16 days, while up to 8% of patients bleed for 30 days or more. Pelvic inflammatory disease occurs in about 1%. Complications involving hospitalisation are more than twice as likely after medical abortions than after surgical ones: 1.5% after medical abortion as opposed to 0.6%.

In a poll on doctors.net in December 2007 93% of doctors disagreed or strongly disagreed that doctors should carry out abortions in their surgeries.
The BMA is opposed to a relaxation of the rules on premises.
Many GPs will simply refuse to work in polyclinics where abortions are performed.

There is strong, robust and widely accepted scientific evidence that induced abortion leads to an increased risk of premature birth in subsequent pregnancies, with all its attendant risks and economic costs for mother and baby and society.
A motion to be considered at the BMA annual representative meeting in Edinburgh on 10 July acknowledges that abortion can be a psychologically traumatic process for women, and urges the BMA to campaign for increased counseling and support for women before and after this procedure.The chairman of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee has recommended it as likely to be non-controversial and acceptable without debate.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists in a new statement on 14 March 2008 acknowledges that some studies identify a range of mental disorders following abortion and recognizes that good practice in relation to abortion will include informed consent which requires the provision of adequate and appropriate information regarding the possible risks and benefits to physical and mental health