Midwives revolt over abortions
HORRIFIED midwives have mutinied against their own chief after she signed their union up to an ‘abhorrent’ plan to scrap the time limit on terminations – without asking them.
Cathy Warwick is facing calls to quit as chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) union over what critics say is a blatant conflict of interest.
As well as leading the nation’s 30,000 midwives, Professor Warwick is also chairman of the biggest provider of abortions – the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).
She has signed the union up to a BPAS campaign to scrap the current 24-week legal cut-off for terminations. BPAS, which receives £25million of public money to carry out 63,000 terminations a year on behalf of the NHS, launched the campaign in February to ‘decriminalise’ abortion.
MPs said Professor Warwick should quit as chief executive of Britain’s biggest maternity union, which did not consult its members on the issue.
Thousands of midwives have signed a ‘Not in our name’ petition, describing the move as an insult to their profession and demanding that she reverse a policy which ‘represents a disgraceful betrayal of your profession and must be undone’.
Under the 1967 Abortion Act, women can abort an unborn baby up until 24 weeks’ gestation, with exceptions after that allowed only on ‘medical’ grounds. But BPAS’s ‘We Trust Women’ campaign proposes that ‘the abortion time limit be removed from criminal law’.
Critics fear such a radical change would lead to healthy foetuses being aborted late in pregnancy for the convenience of the mother or because they were the ‘wrong’ sex.
It would also fly in the face of calls to actually tighten the 24-week cutoff following advances in medical science that mean more premature babies survive.
Judith Smyth, a midwife from Northern Ireland, said: ‘Anyone advocating allowing abortion up to birth, I think is so sad and tragic, but to have my own representative body coming out in support of this extreme view is very disappointing.’
Labour MP Robert Flello said: ‘I am utterly and completely appalled by this abhorrent proposal. This wasn’t a minor policy shift by the Royal College of Midwives, it was a fundamental change and the reason they didn’t ask their members is because they knew they wouldn’t get it past them.
‘It is unacceptable that the RMC is led by someone so closely aligned to the biggest provider of abortions.’
An RCM spokesman said: ‘The constitution allows for our members to elect the RCM board and for this body to set our strategic objectives.’
Abortion powers will be devolved to Holyrood under the Scotland Bill. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted there are no plans to change the 24-week abortion limit, but other SNP politicians have previously said it should be reduced.
‘Disgraceful betrayal’
MIDWIVES hold a special place in the public’s affection for their role in helping women through the hazards of pregnancy, childbirth and the early months of bringing up baby.
But this wholesome image risks being shattered by the news that the Royal College of Midwives has thrown its weight behind a campaign to legalise abortions at any time up to a baby’s birth – sweeping away the current 24-week limit. The RCM did not consult its members before taking this extraordinary decision, saying it was for the board and chief executive to set ‘strategic objectives’.
And who is the chief executive? One Cathy Warwick, who is also chair of the highly-politicised abortion provider and lobby group, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which actually launched the legalisation campaign. Could there be a clearer conflict of interests?
hundreds of ordinary midwives are now demanding the policy be reversed and there are calls for Professor Warwick to stand down. The Mail hopes she will.
The RCM was established in 1881 with the motto, ‘Life is the Gift of God’. how deeply depressing that to its current board, life seems to be a mere commodity, to be preserved or extinguished at will.