BPAS responds to new BMA policy on abortion

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Wednesday, 27, Jun 2007 12:00

Dear Colleagues,

The BMA today passed a policy motion by 67% in favour, that the BMA should call for UK legislation to be amended so that abortion under 14 weeks would be available on the same basis of informed patient consent as other medical treatments. This would remove the need for two doctors’ signatures before an abortion can be given.

The BMA doctors also voted that the current legal upper time limits regarding abortion be maintained and that patients’ access to later terminations should be safeguarded. The BMA’s Ethics Committee has also recently written a paper supporting these changes from an ethical point of view.

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the sexual healthcare charity which provides around 55,000 women with termination each year, said of this:

‘Today’s new policy is very good news for women. The doctors and ethicists at the BMA have seen the common sense in removing medically out-dated delays to women who need abortion. Abortion in the UK is still regulated by the 1967 Abortion Act. The medical and social landscape was very different then.

‘Today, 89% of women have abortions in the first trimester. Doctors agree that for most women, having an abortion is less medically risky for the woman than continuing with the pregnancy. There is no medical or public interest in retaining unnecessary legal obstacles for doctors and their patients.

‘Society sees parenthood as a significant social responsibility and women expect to be able to plan their families accordingly. The reality is that no contraceptive method is 100% reliable, and that unintended pregnancy can present women with a very serious problem.

‘The 1967 Abortion Act was a much-needed and humane provision in its day, but is widely seen as no longer appropriate to modern ethical and clinical practice. We’re pleased that Parliament will soon be debating abortion and we hope that MPs will follow the medical profession’s lead and put the needs of women first.’

NOTES for EDITORS

For more information, or to arrange an interview with BPAS’ Chief Executive Ann Furedi, please contact the BPAS press office on 020 7612 0206 or 07788 725 185.

BPAS, (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service) has been a registered charity since 1968, and is the UK’s leading sexual healthcare provider. As well as contraceptive advice and treatment, BPAS carried out around 55,000 terminations of pregnancy in 2006. 85% per cent of all BPAS’ not-for-profit treatments were carried out on behalf of the NHS. Typical non-NHS funded clients may have travelled from Eire, Northern Ireland or Italy, locations where access to safe, legal abortion remains restricted by law. BPAS has centres across England, Wales

and Scotland. Please see www.bpas.org for further information.

The UK public’s continued support for safe, legal abortion was demonstrated in a weighted, representative MORI poll from 2006. 63 per cent of a representative sample of GB adults agreed that ‘if a woman wants an abortion, she should not have to continue with her pregnancy’. 18 per cent disagreed with this. Please see:

http://www.bpas.org/press-office/archive_2006/poll_shows_support_for_legal_abortion.html

BMA Ethics committee paper on abortion supporting these changes: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/Firsttrimesterabortion

Department of Health abortion statistics for 2006, showing that 89% of women have abortions in the first trimester: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_075697

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, (RCOG) states that ‘At least one-third of British women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45’ (see p1, ‘Care of women requesting induced abortion’, Evidence-based Guideline Number 7, Sept 2004).

For most women, having an abortion poses fewer medical risks than going through pregnancy and birth. See the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) information on this for more details.

The 1967 Abortion Act requires that two doctors must agree that the risk to a woman’s physical or mental health, or the risk to her children’s physical or mental health will be greater, if she continues with the pregnancy than if she ends it. This applies up until 24 weeks’ gestation. This Act does not apply in Northern Ireland.

Doctors agree that in countries where safe, legal abortion is not available, women’s lives are put at risk. Worldwide 68,000 women die each year after unsafe abortion, according to the World Health Organisation. Many thousands of others are left with severe long-term health problems as a consequence.