Medics voice concern over plan to end home abortions in autumn
HOME abortions will be axed in the autumn, after long wrangles in the Government about women’s reproductive rights.
Since the start of Covid, women seeking to terminate a pregnancy in its first 10 weeks have been able to secure “pills by post”, after undergoing a video or telephone consultation. Legislation allowing such procedures is due to expire at the end of next month.
The Daily Telegraph understands that ministers are preparing to announce an extension to the temporary measures for six more months. The compromise was agreed amid concern that abortion clinics would be unable to cope with demand, if asked to return suddenly to old ways of working. But from this autumn, the “remote” system will be abolished, despite pleas from medical colleges and women’s groups, which say it is safe, effective and often preferred by those facing terminations.
A Whitehall source said: “As we move away from the measures we took to get through Covid, it’s right that we make a safe return to the policy that was in place pre-pandemic.”
In an urgent plea to Boris Johnson last night, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives and the British Medical Association said that removing the service “would indicate a deep distrust of women and an institutional disregard for their reproductive rights”.
Others among the signatories include Mumsnet, as well as a host of pro-choice campaigners and abortion providers.
Leading medics at the colleges have said it would be “devastating for women” and a “huge backward step” to remove the service.
Lord Winston is among fertility experts who have urged ministers to retain the current system, saying home abortions are safe, and make it easier to have terminations at an early stage, reducing the risk of complications.
Since the changes were made, the proportion of abortions performed early has increased significantly. However, the changes saw record numbers of abortions in the first year of the pandemic, with many MPS raising concerns about the system becoming permanent.
Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP, said the changes amounted to “the biggest change to abortion law in this country since 1967”, raising concerns that the system could encourage “coercive control” of women.
Early medical abortions involve the taking of two pills, within 48 hours of each other.
In 2018, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, used powers in the 1967 Abortion Act to allow the second pill to be taken at home, as long as the first was administered at a clinic, following a consultation. But on March 30 2020, temporary legal coronavirus changes were made, allowing both pills to be taken at home, after a remote consultation by telephone.