The Government has confirmed that an announcement that it was to introduce DIY abortions to the UK was an administrative error and that there will be no changes to abortion regulations.
Earlier this week, the Government announced it would introduce so-called ‘telemedicine’, that allows ‘DIY’ abortions to be performed at home by women on themselves without a doctor or other medical professional present.
The very substantial change to current policy was announced on Monday afternoon on Twitter without any public consultation, Parliamentary scrutiny or debate.
Under the current law, abortions could only take place in hospitals or clinical settings approved by the Secretary of State. Under the policy as announced, doctors would have prescribed both abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) over the phone or via Facetime or Skype, and then women would have performed their abortion at home.
Catherine Robinson, of Right to Life UK, welcomed the news that the “extreme change” to the law was not going ahead and that the announcement was an admin error.
“The Department of Health and Social Care is working tirelessly at the moment so it is understandable that human errors like this are made,” Ms Robinson told The Catholic Universe. “If the policy had gone ahead, it would have been an incredibly opportunistic and tragic change pushed by the abortion lobby to take advantage of this crisis. ”
Life Charity said it was also relieved that the Government’s initial statement, announcing that both abortion pills in medical abortions can now be taken at home, was actually published “in error”.
Liz Parsons, Life’s director of advocacy, told The Catholic Universe: “We will repeat our consistent warning that removing medical abortions from the supervision of medical professionals and to have it completely in the home, places women in grave danger. We must also ensure that abortion is not allowed outside of the law.”
Picture: In this 2007 file photo, children in London march during a pro-life demonstration. (CNS photo/Toby Melville, Reuters).
