Let women take pill for abortion at home, say nurses

WOMEN should be able to take abortion pills at home, a group of nurses believes.

They called for new laws to replace ‘Draconian’ legislation meaning women cannot choose how to have a termination.

Speakers at the Royal College of Nursing Congress yesterday said laws stating abortions must be approved by two doctors and carried out at a hospital or clinic were ‘needlessly intrusive’.

They argued that the procedure should be decriminalised so they can be carried out by nurses or midwives – with women able to choose to have them at home.

Nurse Amanda Myers, who proposed the decriminalisation motion, said in Glasgow: ‘(The 1967 Abortion Act) didn’t give women the authority to decide for themselves whether to end a pregnancy but left that decision

‘Paternalistic and badly out of step’

in the hands of the medical profession. The paternalistic approach it embodies is now badly out of step in a society which expects women to be able to play a full role to take charge of their own reproductive decision-making.’

But one of the earliest premature babies to survive spoke against relaxing the rules. Sophie Proud, born at 23 weeks in 1996 weighing 1lb 9oz, said the 24-week limit for terminations should be reconsidered.

The student nurse said: ‘I realise that without extensive medical intervention I would not be standing here today but the viability of a foetus needs to be considered. I am living proof that there is potential for a baby to survive before 24 weeks.’

Meanwhile Ellen Cullen suggested women desperate to end their pregnancies should be encouraged to give their babies to couples desperate to adopt.

In Scotland last year, 12,082 pregnancies were terminated – up by 2.6 per cent from 2014.