UK – Abortion prosecutions are never in the public interest, says royal college

New guidance to say health staff should not report women suspected of illegally ending pregnancies to police

Harriet Sherwood
Mon 22 Jan 2024

Doctors and other healthcare staff should not report suspected illegal abortions to the police as prosecutions are never in the public interest, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said.

In an intervention on Monday that will trigger further debate on the decriminalisation of abortion, Dr Ranee Thakar, the president of the professional body, said “outdated and antiquated” abortion laws meant women were left vulnerable to criminal investigation.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/illegal-abortions-prosecutions-uk-police-royal-college

22.01.2024

News

Bethany Cox

British Society of Abortion Care Providers

Carla Foster

Dr Jonathan Lord

Dr Ranee Thakar

Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

UK – Telling health staff not to report women for suspected illegal abortions has firm legal basis

There is no general obligation to contact police about a crime and the royal college is within its rights to tell its members not to do so

Haroon Siddique, Legal affairs correspondent
Mon 22 Jan 2024

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ call for abortion to be decriminalised – and announcement that it will tell its members not to report women to police if they believe they may have illegally ended their pregnancies – is a significant intervention in the debate.

Concerns about the existing laws in England and Wales came to the fore last year when a woman was sentenced to more than two years in prison for procuring drugs to induce an abortion after the legal limit, which is generally 24 weeks.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/proposed-guidance-to-health-staff-not-to-report-suspected-pregnancy-termination-to-police-may-be-lawful

Why UK campaigners fear drive to decriminalise abortion may stall

Carla Foster’s release welcomed but case has done little to settle debate about abortions carried after 24-week limit

Alexandra Topping
Tue 18 Jul 2023

On Tuesday, Carla Foster, who was jailed for terminating her pregnancy after the legal time limit last month, was told by the court of appeal that she would be released from prison after her 28-month sentence was halved and suspended.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) says there are three more women accused of illegally ending their own pregnancies awaiting trial, adding that in the last three years there has been an increase in the number of women and girls facing police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/18/why-uk-campaigners-fear-drive-to-decriminalisation-abortion-may-stalln

Calls for abortion to be decriminalised amid row over jailing of UK woman

Leading expert warns of ‘sustained attacks’ on reproductive rights after sentence imposed on Monday

Alexandra Topping and Tobi Thomas
Tue 13 Jun 2023

Leading women’s health experts have warned of an attack on women’s reproductive rights and the potential for more prosecutions, following the jailing of a woman for terminating her pregnancy after the legal time limit.

The president of the UK’s leading body for sexual health professionals said that women should be “more worried than they are” following the sentencing, adding that it could lead to sustained attacks on established rights, and efforts to curtail reforms.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/13/calls-for-abortion-to-be-decriminalised-amid-row-over-jailing-of-uk-woman

A Controversial Court Ruling Has Britain’s Abortion Rights Groups Up in Arms

BY ARMANI SYED
JUNE 13, 2023

U.K. abortion rights groups are planning large demonstrations on Saturday outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice, after a woman was controversially jailed on Monday under an 1861 law for using drugs to induce a medical abortion past legal term limits.

The case has sparked outcry and calls for an overhaul of reproductive justice laws in the U.K., as well as the full decriminalization of abortion.

Continued: https://time.com/6286943/abortion-uk-law-jailed-woman/

UK – Renewed calls for abortion clinic buffer zones to protect women from abuse

29th May
By PA News Agency

Medical leaders have made a renewed call for legislation to protect women from “unacceptable” harassment and intimidation outside abortion clinics.

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), which represents more than 14,000 UK doctors, has issued a new position statement calling for a nationwide network of buffer zones around abortion clinics.

Continued: https://www.largsandmillportnews.com/news/20174360.renewed-calls-abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-protect-women-abuse/

UK – Will easy, early abortions become another casualty of the Tories’ culture war?

Doctors say a return to pre-Covid rules, where women had to get a clinic appointment, will leave thousands waiting too long

Polly Toynbee
Thu 10 Feb 2022

How long ago the Abortion Act of 1967 seems now, and yet the struggle for a woman’s right to control her own body never ends. Time and again this basic principle comes under attack from rightwing and religious lobbies forever seeking to limit and reverse it.

Now they are at it yet again. As the prime minister dashes to roll back all coronavirus legislation a month early to mollify his rebels, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, and his junior minister, Maggie Throup, will decide whether to maintain the abortion laws that were introduced as part of emergency Covid laws, allowing women to request earlier and easier terminations at home. If Javid and Throup instead return to the old abortion laws that were in place before Covid, where women had to have an in-person clinic visit in order to get an abortion, thousands of women will have to chase scarce clinical appointments, forcing many to wait beyond the time limit for medical abortions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/10/abortions-tories-culture-war-doctors-covid-women

UK – Government Urged to Continue Allowing Women to Take Abortion Pills at Home

‘There is no reason for governments to delay making telemedicine for early medical abortion a permanent feature of healthcare,’ doctors say

Kate Ng
Jan 31, 2022

Women will be forced into illegal abortions if the government does not extend rules that allow abortion pills to be taken at home, doctors have warned.

Healthcare providers from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) are concerned about plans to scrap the rules that were put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/abortion-pills-illegal-women-pregnancy-b2003983.html?r=60619

UK – The number of abortions in Staffordshire during the pandemic

Experts believe the increase is partly because of changes to the law

By Richard Ault, Chief Feature Writer
17 JUL 2021

During the year Covid-19 first arrived in the UK, bringing dramatic changes to daily life, there were 2,660 abortions carried out in Staffordshire.

That was up from 2,653 in 2019 and the highest ever recorded in the area, according to figures from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Continued: https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/local-news/number-abortions-staffordshire-during-pandemic-5648281

GP cash incentive linked to fall in UK abortion rates, study finds

Use of long-acting reversible contraceptives rose due to scheme encouraging targeted advice to women

Nicola Davis, Science correspondent
Mon 14 Sep 2020

A scheme that gave GP surgeries cash incentives to tell women about long-acting reversible methods of contraception has been linked to a sharp fall in abortion rates.

Long-acting reversible contraceptives, known as Larcs, include the implant, intrauterine device and contraceptive injection and are highly effective.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/14/gp-cash-incentive-linked-to-fall-in-uk-abortion-rates-study-finds

14.09.2020