Get midwives to abort babies
Shock call from pro-abortion law professor handed £500k for major review... and top surgeons agree
MIDWIVES may soon be carrying out surgical abortions for the first time following a major taxpayerfunded review of legislation led by a controversial law professor.
MPs and pro- life campaigners have reacted with fury after Sally Sheldon concluded that the 1967 Abortion Act has been misinterpreted in saying that only doctors could perform suction and other surgical tasks in terminations.
But she was backed by the Royal Coll ege of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which said the ‘valuable’ findings should prompt a wider review.
Prof Sheldon – an advocate for the lifting of the ban on abortions past 24 weeks – was given a £500,000 government grant to ‘fundamentally re-evaluate’ the 50-year-old law. She said the move to allow midwives and nurses to carry out surgical abortions would speed up services and save the NHS money.
More than half of all abortions in the UK are carried out with drugs that expel the embryo from the uterus, and nurses and midwives are allowed to administer these.
Around 40 per cent of cases, however, involve a surgical technique in which suction is used to remove the foetus, a procedure which is carried out by a doctor.
Critics said Prof Sheldon’s findings were ‘extremely concerning’ and part of a broader campaign to weaken abortion laws.
Tory MP Maria Caulfield, a former nurse, said she would raise the issue with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. She added: ‘Midwives are desperately worried that there is a drive to make abortion easier and they will be called upon to carry out these surgical procedures.
‘They are feeling very pressured. One minute they are being asked to save lives, the next to carry out abortions.’
Crossbench peer Lord Alton said: ‘Women placed into the care of a midwife may have their confidence undermined if they know the midwife is also involved in ending life.’
Lucy Lovell, 43, a midwife from Gloucestershire, said: ‘I wouldn’t be happy to do procedures like that and I do not think it should be part of a midwife’s role.’
Prof Sheldon’s review comes amid growing controversy over abortion laws, as reported by The Mail on Sunday in recent months.
The British Medical Association was last month accused of fuelling a ‘crusade’ to end the 24-week limit on abortions after it published a ‘discussion document’ called Decriminalising Abortion, though it said the document was neutral. At the same time, Labour MP Diana Johnson introduced a Bill into Parliament to decriminalise abortion.
One of its architects was Prof Sheldon, a trustee of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the country’s largest provider of abortions to the NHS.
Prof Sheldon, writing in t he Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, said the assumption that doctors alone could conduct abortions was
‘Worried there is a drive to make abortion easier’
‘unfounded’. The Kent University professor said: ‘On the contrary, it would be lawful for appropriately trained nurses or midwives, acting as part of a multi- disciplinary team, to carry out vacuum aspiration procedures.’
The Royal College of Midwives declined to comment, as did the Royal College of Nursing. The Department of Health said any law changes would be made by Parliament, not the Government.