Bodies that backed change

TWO of the country’s most powerful medical bodies have already come out in favour of changing the law on abortions.

The British Medical Association – which represents two-thirds of the UK’s 280,000 doctors – voted in favour of legal reforms at its annual meeting in June.

Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA’s ethics committee, said terminations ‘should be treated as a medical issue’ rather than a crime.

Some 69 per cent of doctors who were present at the ballot voted in favour and just 29 per cent against. The remainder abstained.

In May last year, the Royal College of Midwives announced it was in favour of decriminalisation even though chief executive Professor Cathy Warwick did not consult her 30,000 members beforehand. At the time she was also chairman of the country’s largest abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, although she has since stood down. Many midwives claimed there was a clear ‘conflict of interest’.