Home abortion move could face legal action

The Scottish Government could face a legal challenge over its controversial decision to allow women to take abortion pills at home.

While pro-choice campaigners welcomed the move, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children Scotland is fiercely opposed and is now consulting lawyers.

Chief executive John Deighan branded the decision “highly irresponsible” and claimed ministers may have “recklessly exceeded their powers”.

Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood, recently confirmed she had written to all health boards to say that the drug misoprostol could be taken by women outside a clinical setting.

Dr Calderwood said it was “significant progress” that women in Scotland who are up to nine weeks’ pregnant could take the second dose of the drug at home if they wanted, saying this would allow them “more privacy, more dignity”.

Campaign groups including Engender, Amnesty Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland have welcomed the move, while Professor Lesley Regan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, described it as “admirable”.

But Mr Deighan claimed: “This is a highly irresponsible decision which threatens an explosion of bad mental health outcomes for women in Scotland.

“There are serious concerns that the Scottish ministers may have recklessly exceeded their powers and that their decision-making process is deeply flawed.

“We have consulted with senior lawyers and experts in the field and we have some immediate concerns that will be rigorously examined in the coming days.”

He claimed allowing women to take misoprostol at home represented a return to “DIY abortions”, and warned these would be a “much greater threat to mental health”.

Dr Calderwood has written to NHS boards over abortion drug.