UK – Buffer zones are not an attack on free speech

Buffer zones are not an attack on free speech

Ann Furedi, CEO, bpas
12 April 2018

The decision by Ealing Council in London to introduce a buffer zone around a local abortion clinic feels like a bitter-sweet victory. Since launching the Back Off campaign, bpas has worked long and hard to help win this victory, submitting 150 accounts from women and local residents of their experience of anti-abortion activists trying to ‘change women’s minds’ outside the clinic. We support the right of patients to receive, and of clinic staff to deliver, legal, NHS-funded care, free of interference from outsiders driven by their belief that abortion is wrong. The indignity of being pestered to account for your personal, moral decision to a stranger as you enter a medical clinic is an unmeasurable burden. But we also support free speech and the right to protest. We understand the concerns of civil-rights groups such as Liberty, who object that Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) are increasingly used to criminalise non-criminal activity and to victimise the homeless.

Continued: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/buffer-zones-are-not-an-attack-on-free-speech/21298#.Ws8Z6nfTWEe

UK – NHS pressures leave one woman a week unable to access abortion with no legal option other than childbirth, charity warns

NHS pressures leave one woman a week unable to access abortion with no legal option other than childbirth, charity warns
Experts 'deeply saddened' by shocking number of women denied access to legal abortion care

Alex Matthews-King Health Correspondent
Thursday 15 March 2018

One woman a week in Britain is unable to get access to specialist abortion care because of a lack of capacity in the NHS, leaving them with no legal option but to give birth, a report has warned.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) said “service pressures” mean women with complex medical needs are having their lives put at risk waiting for abortion care.

Continued: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/hs-abortion-women-access-legal-option-childbirth-mothers-waiting-times-a8256096.html

New Zealand – It’s okay to be uncomfortable about abortion

It’s okay to be uncomfortable about abortion

Nicole Skews-Poole | Guest writer
Feb 24, 2018

With the announcement that Labour is moving towards abortion law reform, New Zealand is gearing up to talk about a topic that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So how can we acknowledge and move past the discomfort towards a law that works?

In case you didn’t realise, abortion is still in the Crimes Act. Provision is available through technicalities and regulated by a set of outdated laws. Patients and healthcare providers are required to jump through hoops and sometimes even lie to obtain permission from two certifying consultants.

Continued: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-02-2018/its-okay-to-be-uncomfortable-about-abortion/

24.02.2018

Featured

Opinion

Abortion Supervisory Committee

ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa

It’s been a long road to Ireland’s abortion referendum – so what will happen now?

It's been a long road to Ireland's abortion referendum - so what will happen now?

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of Bpas
30 January 2018

I became a pro-choice advocate 30 years ago, when I met a girl of my age who had been sent to a young mothers’ home in England before her pregnancy was visible. She had been told to stay there until she ‘looked normal again’ so no one would know her family’s shame.

So, when I heard that the Irish Prime Minister has confirmed a referendum that could change the country's laws that all but ban abortion and enable women's access to terminations, I thought - at last.

Continued: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/long-road-irelands-abortion-referendum-will-happen-now/

UK: Women should be allowed to take abortion pills at home, says leading maternity doctor

Women should be allowed to take abortion pills at home, says leading maternity doctor

Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
10 December 2017

Women should be allowed to take abortion pills at home to avoid them miscarrying on the way home from the clinic, Britain’s leading maternity doctor has said.

Currently, women who ask for an early medical abortion (EMA) in the first nine weeks of pregnancy must take two drugs, one or two days apart. And, by law, both sets must be taken in front of a doctor or nurse.

But Professor Lesley Regan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said that allowing women to take abortion pills and then leave puts them at risk of suffering bleeding or complications on the way home.

Continued at source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/12/10/women-should-allowed-take-abortion-pills-home-says-leading-maternity/

Thousands attend Dublin abortion rights protest

Thousands attend Dublin abortion rights protest
March for Choice is first major march since timeframe of referendum unveiled
Sat, Sep 30, 2017
Ronan McGreevy, Ciarán D'Arcy

Thousands of people took to the streets of Dublin on Saturday calling for the liberalisation of Ireland’s abortion laws.

The demonstration began at the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm and progressed down O’Connell Street, before turning onto the quays and crossing over the Liffey. From there it proceeded up Pearse Street and towards the rally area in Merrion Square.

Continued at source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/thousands-attend-dublin-abortion-rights-protest-1.3239832

Half Of U.K Women Who’ve Had Abortions Experienced ‘Failed Contraception’

Half Of U.K Women Who've Had Abortions Experienced 'Failed Contraception'

July 8, 2017
Rachel Moss

More than half of women who had an abortion last year were using contraception that had failed, a new report suggests.

According to data released by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas), 51.2% of women who had an abortion at bpas clinics in 2016 reported using a method of contraception.

Continued at source: Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/07/08/half-of-u-k-women-whove-had-abortions-experienced-failed-contr_a_23021706/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage

08.07.2017

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

contraception effectiveness

contraception usage

Family Planning 2020

hormonal contraception

UK: Women are having abortions because their contraception doesn’t work

Women are having abortions because their contraception doesn't work

Ann Furedi, Chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas)

7 July 2017

Women who have abortions are not careless about contraception. They are not ignorant and they are not generally unable to get hold of it. The uncomfortable truth is that contraception lets women down.

Yes, sometimes we don’t use it properly – a condom is bound to fail if you don’t get it out of the packet, and you can’t expect the pill to be reliable unless you take it reliably. But that’s only part of the story.

Continued at source: The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/women-having-abortions-contraception-doesnt-work/

UK: The power of the pro-choice movement

The power of the pro-choice movement

Ann Furedi
CEO, BPAS
3 July 2017

The Tories’ Northern Ireland concession shows how much things have changed.

Although the announcement that the government will fund abortions in England for women from Northern Ireland appeared to come out of nowhere, the issue has been a festering sore for successive governments for years.

Of all the demands of the UK pro-choice movement, equity in access to abortion services for women from Northern Ireland has traditionally been the one that attracts the most sympathy.

Continued at source: Spiked: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-power-of-the-pro-choice-movement/20032

Abortion: NI women not entitled to NHS terminations in England

June 14, 2017

The Supreme Court challenge centred on the case of a Northern Ireland woman who became pregnant when she was 15. She went to England with her mother for an abortion in a private clinic in 2012, at a cost of about £900.Northern Ireland's abortion law is much stricter than the rest of the UK.

The mother and daughter took the case against UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who conceded that he had the power to make provisions for Northern Ireland residents to access free NHS abortions in England.

Continued at link:BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-40271763

14.06.2017