Pro-life organisations and Catholic bishops have expressed dismay at the decision by MPs to make at-home abortion services permanent.
The House of Commons voted on 30 March to approve an amendment to the Health and Care Bill which maintains the emergency alteration to abortion provision, allowing pregnant women to take both abortion pills for an early medical abortion at home.
The government had previously announced that this would expire in August, restoring the requirement to take the first pill under medical supervision.
Right to Life UK said that MPs “have removed vital safeguards including an in-person appointment with a medical professional” and have “put thousands more women at risk from ‘DIY’ home abortion services.”
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children called it “disgusting that a healthcare bill has been hijacked to push through something that is not healthcare by any means”.
The amendment, which passed by 215 votes to 188, originated in the House of Lords, where it had passed by 75 votes to 35.
Abortion providers argue that a return to pre-pandemic requirements would leave women waiting too long for a clinical appointment. “These women either turn to illegal methods or present to us very late,” said Claire Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.
However, pro-life campaigners have pointed to the significant number of complications associated with at-home abortions, affecting six per cent of women who take them.
“At-home abortion services have been linked to a series of scandals where women have been put at risk,” said Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK. “By removing a routine in-person consultation that allows medical practitioners to certify gestation and recognise coercion, ‘at-home’ abortion has presented serious risks to women and girls in abusive situations.”
It is believed that as many as a quarter of abortions are coerced by men, although domestic abuse charities find that abusers more commonly force pregnant women to go to term.
Speaking against the amendment on Wednesday, Dr Caroline Johnson, the Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, warned of the problems with remote prescriptions: “If some is prescribed something of such severity over the telephone, the clinician does not know who will take the tablets. Will they be taken by the woman speaking to the clinician on the telephone? Are they going to be sold to somebody else? Is somebody else going to be forced to take them? The reality is that we do not know and we cannot know.”
Alithea Williams, public policy manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, condemned the decision: “It was bad enough that this policy was introduced as a temporary measure during a public health emergency, but for MPs actually to vote for it shows how little they care about the health and wellbeing of women. This is a shameful day.”
John Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Westminster and the bishops' conference lead for life issues, said the move “diminishes the seriousness with which these decisions should be taken”.
“Not only will this endanger the lives of the unborn,” he said, “but also the lives of women.”
“In the face of this disappointing outcome, we must now strengthen our resolve to foster a culture of welcome and acceptance of new life, and to continue to pray and work for better legal protections for pregnant women and the child in the womb.”
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