Welcome
Tuesday, 02, Dec 2008 05:05
Mission Statement
BPAS supports reproductive choice by advocating and providing high-quality, affordable services to prevent or end unwanted pregnancy with contraception or by abortion.
British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) was established as a registered charity in 1968 to provide a safe legal abortion service. At that time, shortly after the legalisation of abortion, the National Health Service was unable to provide abortion care for all who needed it. Today NHS abortion services remain limited and so BPAS continues to provide affordable, high quality care for those who cannot, or choose not to, access it.
BPAS collaborates closely with the NHS and, in areas where local arrangements allow it, BPAS provides a range of reproductive health care services, free of cost to the user, on behalf of the NHS. BPAS is now Britain's largest single abortion provider and cares for almost 50,000 women with unwanted pregnancies each year.
BPAS has a commitment to education, research and the development of good practice. It is a source of accurate information and informed comment about the causes, consequences and management of unwanted pregnancy to parliamentarians, policy makers and opinion formers.
BPAS believes that currently available methods of contraception cannot prevent all unintended pregnancies and legal abortion is necessary if women are to regulate their fertility contraception and legal abortion are an essential part of health care and should be freely available to all through a publicly funded NHS.
Reproductive health services offered by specialist agencies such as BPAS are an essential supplement to the NHS if all women with unwanted pregnancies are to have early access to affordable specialist care.
BPAS exists:
to provide support and care for women seeking legal abortion inform and educate policy makers, opinion formers, the media and the public on issues relating to unwanted pregnancy.
deliver contraceptive advice and care including male and female sterilisation and emergency contraception in collaboration with existing NHS services.
promote and encourage research, and the advancement of science and understanding, in matters concerning the regulation of fertility
advocate the need for safe legal abortion.
BPAS aims to:
provide reproductive health care services that are responsive to the needs of those who might wish to use them
promote the development of services that are accessible, effective, safe and confidential safeguard individual freedom and moral autonomy in making reproductive choices
utilise its experience of abortion provision to contribute to the collective knowledge of those who provide reproductive health care.
Governance
BPAS is governed by a board of trustees who meet quarterly to determine policy and ensure that the organisation remains true to its charitable aims and values, and that charges to women or to the NHS are no greater than is necessary to cover costs and service development.
Board chairman
Joan Greenwood
Chief executive
Ann Furedi
Chairman of the Research & Ethics Committee
Dr Ronald Fletcher MB, CHB, PhD, MD, FRCP
www.bpas.org