The Mail on Sunday

Clinics are mailing out DIY abortion pills with no checks

- By Michael Powell

CAMPAIGNER­S have warned that women’s lives could be at risk after two of Britain’s leading abortion charities were caught sending out so-called ‘DIY’ terminatio­n pills in the post without making basic checks.

At the start of the lockdown, the Government controvers­ially relaxed rules so that abortion pills could be mailed to women who were up to ten weeks pregnant after a telephone consultati­on, rather than having to go to a clinic.

Ministers insisted the temporary measure would be safe as two doctors had to sign off the prescripti­on, but an investigat­ion involving mystery callers found:

No attempts were made to check the identity of women who called up to obtain the pills;

There was no checks on whether women were actually registered with the GP practice that they gave;

There was no system in place to verify the informatio­n women gave about how far into their pregnancy they were, even though the tablets carry a risk of severe bleeding and even haemorrhag­ing if taken after ten weeks.

Seven women received pills in the post after providing bogus details to Marie Stopes UK and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).

Christian Concern, which commission­ed the investigat­ion, said it feared the system makes it easier for women to carry out an illegal abortion at home, even beyond the 24-week limit for terminatio­ns. Police recently launched an inquiry after a 28-weekspregn­ant woman in the Midlands got pills through the post from BPAS.

BPAS is investigat­ing eight more cases of women who were sent the pills despite being more than ten weeks pregnant, but last night defended the scheme and described the investigat­ion as a ‘meaningles­s exercise’.

Labour MPs will tomorrow use a Commons vote to seek to make DIY abortions permanent, but Christian Concern said the investigat­ion’s findings showed it was unsafe.

Its chief executive Andrea Williams said: ‘We are alarmed at the lack of simple checks at these abortion charities before they send out powerful drugs. Women who take these drugs well into their pregnancy are putting their lives at risk or could cause serious injury to themselves.’

All seven callers lied about which GP practice they were registered with, and one of the women reduced the length of her pregnancy from nine weeks to seven midway through a call without causing concern.

Last night, BPAS spokesman Clare Murphy said: ‘It is appalling that at a time when services are under intense pressure, anti-abortion campaigner­s would undertake a meaningles­s exercise to prove that a woman who says she needs an abortion is able to access the help she needs. How else should it be? We are shocked, but sadly not surprised, that these campaigner­s… would want to remove this lifeline.’

Jonathan Lord, medical director at Marie Stopes UK, said: ‘ We trust women to give us honest informatio­n and in our experience the only people who abuse that system are radical anti-choice organisati­ons desperate to restrict access to legal abortion care.’

‘Women could be putting their lives in danger’

 ??  ?? FEARS: A foetus at 24 weeks, the limit for abortion, which activists fear is being flouted
FEARS: A foetus at 24 weeks, the limit for abortion, which activists fear is being flouted

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