Midwives should see abortion as part of their job, says RCM chief
Royal College chief is defiant after her support for campaign to end legal restrictions on terminations unleashes a storm of protest
MIDWIVES should see abortion as part of their job and not primarily a question of “rights and wrongs”, the head of the Royal College of Midwives has insisted as she defended her support for an end to legal time limits.
Prof Cathy Warwick, the union’s chief executive, said midwives had to “deal with the rough and the smooth” rather than simply the “wonder and astonishment” of bringing healthy babies into the world.
In a defiant interview with The Daily
Telegraph following a week of protest and criticism, she called for the 1967 Abortion Act to be scrapped, arguing that it is interpreted “almost as loosely as is possible” to enable women to get around restrictions.
She dismissed the argument that there is a contradiction between a profession dedicated to delivering babies and campaigning for easier abortions, insisting: “The role of the midwife is about supporting the woman. It’s not our job to say anything about the rights and wrongs of abortion.”
She may have been facing demands for her resignation, claims of revolt in the ranks, a growing protest and her name repeated on every news bulletin. But when the storm broke over the decision by the Royal College of Midwives to support a campaign to scrap the time limit on abortion and sweep away all current legal restrictions, its chief executive, Cathy Warwick, was blissfully unaware.
On a climbing holiday in Scotland, it was almost 24 hours before she emerged into clear mobile phone range to be told of the apparent crisis engulfing her organisation after details of the controversial new policy were first reported in a Sunday newspaper.
In the days since, her phone has been making up for lost time as a petition demanding a rethink has swollen to 35,000 signatures, hundreds of midwives signed a public letter of protest and MPs openly attacked the policy change.
Critics accused her of “riding roughshod” over midwives’ views by signing them up to an “abhorrent” and “radical” campaign which, they say, goes against the most basic principles behind a profession dedicated to helping bring new life into the world.
The furore erupted after the organisation published a new policy document on abortion and, crucially, drew attention to Prof Warwick’s earlier decision to sign the RCM up for a campaign led by Britain’s biggest abortion provider BPAS calling for complete decriminalisation of the procedure. Such a move would sweep away the 1967 Abortion Act, with its 24-week limit on performing terminations, its legal requirement for the approval of two doctors and the need for legal criteria to justify ending a pregnancy. Her “executive decision” to back the campaign without formally consulting members of the RCM’s governing board – and her own position as chairman of BPAS – made her the focus of intense scrutiny.
Prof Warwick gives off the impression of someone still enjoying the benefits of the Highland air as she cheerfully but defiantly insists she has no regrets and will not be backing down. In an interview with The Daily
Telegraph she dismissed reports of a partial climbdown by considering a retrospective consultation of members.
She also insisted there would be no going back on the policy and shrugged off her critics as a small minority. In remarks likely to infuriate opponents of any relaxation of the law, she described abortion as being “part” of the role of a midwife.
They should, she said, “deal with the rough and the smooth” rather than simply the enjoying the “wonder and astonishment” of bringing healthy babies into the world. The “rights and wrongs” of abortion should not be a consideration, she insisted.
The medical profession are, she admitted frankly, already interpreting current abortion law “almost as loosely as possible” to get around restrictions.
Terminations should, she said, be viewed as part of the “family planning jigsaw”.
Looking back over the uproar of the past few days, is there anything that she now thinks could have been done differently? “No, I don’t think I do,” she replies frankly.
There was, she adds, “very little reaction” initially, apart from a “handful of emails” from resolute opponents of abortion.
“I suppose I’m inclined to not go into hindsight,” she adds. “I’m inclined to say that at the time we absolutely did what we would do and what we’re authorised to do within the governance structures of the RCM.”
The fundamental reason, she argues, why neither members nor the board were formally consulted was that the decriminalisation of abortion, fits neatly with its long-standing policy to support “choice” for women.
In the only hint of giving quarter to her critics, she adds: “Now, some people might question that judgment, but it was my judgment and it was the judgment of my executive and indeed my whole strategic leadership team.”
For many, supporting “choice” might be one thing but is not sweeping away the current abortion law in its entirety a step further?
“At the end of the day: no,” she replies. “What we’re saying is women should have control over their own fertility and over their own reproduction.
“We’re not saying we’re proabortion, we’re not saying we’re antiabortion, we’re saying ‘let’s give this to women to decide and let’s put it in the general field of healthcare’. ”
To those midwives who say they there is a fundamental contradiction between delivering babies and carrying out abortion, she is equally unbowed. “No, because the role of the midwife is to support women in relation to their reproduction and to care for women,” she replies.
Nor, she insists, is there any contradiction between her own role as chairman of Britain’s biggest abortion provider, and representative of its midwives’ union.
She adds: “Globally, abortion is part of the role of the midwife … providing abortion services for women is about saving their lives in many instances.” But in the UK, with pregnancy safer than ever yet terminations close to record levels – almost 186,000 in England and Wales last year – many midwives might, she acknowledged, look at abortion “through a rather different lens”.
And amid one of the most emotive of all current great ethical debates, morality should simply not, come into it for most midwives, she insisted. “It’s not our job really to say anything about the rights and wrongs of abortion.”
But are there situations in which an abortion could be seen as “wrong”? “Well, I would say no,” she says flatly.
“At the end of the day, if you are a woman and you are pregnant you are going to have to make a decision about your pregnancy that you’re going to have to live with for the rest of your life, so why should I say that’s wrong?”
She is equally unequivocal that arguments about the “right” of the unborn child do not come into it.
“The woman is the person who has rights within the framework that we currently practise in and I think we have to focus on the woman.”
‘The role of the midwife is to support women in relation to their reproduction and to care for women’ ‘If you are a woman and you are pregnant you have to make a decision you’re going have to live with’