Legal bid over home abortions

THE Scottish Government will face legal action after refusing to bow to pro-lifers’ demands to drop plans for at-home abortions.

In October, Ministers announced they would make it legal for women less than nine weeks pregnant to take the drug misoprostol at home.

But the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Scotland) argued that was against the 1967 Abortion Act, which restricts where abortions take place.

It wrote to Dr Catherine Calderwood, the Government’s chief medical officer, calling on her to drop the plans.

After she replied that the Government did not see ‘any reason to withdraw the approval’, the SPUC yesterday announced plans to seek a judicial review.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Scotland is the only part of the UK to offer women the opportunity to take misoprostol at home, when this is clinically appropriate, a decision that allows women to be in control of their treatment.’