Warning as doctors want to offer at-home abortions
SCOTTISH doctors have called for a change in the law to let women have ‘DIY’ abortions at home.
They say women should be allowed to take abortion pills in ‘comfort and privacy’ instead of at clinics.
Currently, terminations can only be carried out at premises licensed for this, such as hospitals.
But a study by Scottish experts says giving women takeaway abortion pills would improve their care and calls for Britain’s 50-year-old abortion laws to be changed.
Last night, campaigners reacted with horror to the idea, saying ‘do-it-yourself’ terminations would be a ‘terrible ordeal’.
Michael Robinson, director of communication and campaigns for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in Scotland, said it was ‘deeply concerned over any proposal that would effectively encourage “DIY” abortion’.
He added: ‘Any abortion is a tragedy but carrying out an abortion at home and seeing the product of abortion would be a terrible psychological ordeal for many women.’
Most abortions are carried out in early pregnancy using drugs.
In Scotland, some women are offered the choice of either staying in hospital after they have taken the drugs or going home. However, the study team said doctors should give women pills to take away – requiring a change in the rules on where abortions can take place. Abortion law was devolved to Scotland last year.
The study – led by Dr Carrie Purcell, a research associate at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at Glasgow University – looked at the experiences of women sent home after taking abortion pills.
It found most preferred waiting for them to take effect at home. But some encountered problems, such as the drugs working on the journey home.
Medical abortions – carried out in the first nine weeks of pregnancy – involve taking two drugs. The first, mifepristone, stops hormones working that allow a pregnancy to continue. One or two days later misoprostol is given.
Dr Purcell said: ‘Our analysis suggests the comfort and privacy afforded by self-management enabled women to cope with treatment in a way that suited them, without concerns about how they were being perceived by strangers, as they might in a hospital.’
She explained: ‘Safe medical regimens offer advantages to women and the potential to develop self-management further.
‘In the British context, however, the current interpretation of the 1967 Abortion Act requires medications to be administered on NHS premises.’
Given the ‘significant changes in provision’ in the 50 years since it was passed, she said the 1967 Act and its interpretation ‘should be revisited in order to facilitate further improvement in patientcentred care’.
A Catholic Church spokesman said: ‘Regardless of the method used to carry out the abortion, it always results in the loss of innocent human life, which no civilised society should ever condone.’
But Jillian Merchant, vicechairman of the campaign group Abortion Rights, said: ‘Changes in legislation would provide a most welcome comfort and normality for a woman having an abortion.’
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it has no current plans to change abortion law, adding: ‘The Scottish Government is continuing to work with NHS boards on the provision of abortion services in Scotland within existing legislation.’
‘Terrible ordeal for many women’