How the pandemic forced long-overdue abortion law reform
Sensible policy changes may leave women wondering: why wasn’t it like this before?
by Phoebe Arslanagic-Wakefield
April 22, 2020
The current crisis places us in an extraordinary state of flux and society may never return to normal. Post-Covid-19, employers may struggle to talk employees back onto their commutes and into the office, certain industries may never recover, and the government’s generous financial support packages may be hard to row back. Indeed, the changes initiated are proving highly disruptive to norms, some which have evolved over time to become meaningless shibboleths.
One such reactionary norm is that, under English law, women seeking to abort an early pregnancy (prior to ten weeks) must take the first of the two pills necessary for the termination in an abortion clinic, and only the second pill may be taken in the comfort of their own homes. Women also need the approval of two doctors to access the medication—telephone consultations are not permitted.
Continued: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/coronavirus-covid-19-abortion-law-reform