Abortion Rights

NEWS RELEASE – 30 October 2006

Tomorrow, Conservative MP Nadine Dorries will launch a parliamentary campaign to drive back women’s reproductive rights. Dorries has tabled a Ten Minute Rule Bill (see notes to editor below) calling for a reduction in the time limit for abortion and the introduction of a mandatory delay in service provision.

The Bill is one more step in a concerted campaign by the anti-choice lobby, which has skewed the debate with misleading assertions of miraculous breakthroughs in foetal viability and which has eclipsed women's needs from the discussion. The lobby is working to confuse opinion over a woman's right to make her own reproductive decisions and build support for successive restrictions in abortion rights - starting with later abortion - with the ultimate aim of criminalising all abortion.

Abortion Rights spokesperson said:
‘Dorries shows a staggering disregard and lack of compassion for the difficulty of women's real circumstances. Only a tiny proportion, less than 1 per cent, of abortions take place between 21 and 24 weeks and they are needed by women facing the most exceptional and difficult circumstances. Her Bill would force women to go through with a pregnancy even if they were facing appalling domestic violence, if they had been raped or were a victim of incest, or had been delayed in the system through no fault of their own.’

‘Her Bill is not based on science, but the pressure of the anti-choice lobby. None of the medical professional bodies - the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Royal College of Nursing - support calls for a reduction in the time limit for abortion.’

‘Dorries’ call for mandatory delays in service provision would affect all women seeking abortion and cause huge unnecessary distress.’

’Abortion Rights, calls on MPs to reject this Bill and for the debate to be based on evidence and regard for women’s needs.’

ENDS:

For further information and interviews please contact Anne Quesney, Abortion Rights Director on 020 7923 9792.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

1. Abortion Rights is the national pro-choice campaign, working to defend and extend abortion rights and provide a pro-choice voice to the media. Abortion Rights campaigns to:
- Liberalise the current UK abortion law and make abortion available on request in the first three months and with one doctor’s signature thereafter.
- Improve access to, and experience of, abortion – ensure that all women in the UK have equal access to safe, legal and free abortion.
- Oppose any restrictions to women’s current rights and access to abortion

2. The Bill ‘Termination of pregnancy’ is due to be debated on the Commons floor from 2.30pm on Tuesday 31st October 2006.

TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY That leave be given to bring in a Bill to reduce the time limit for legal termination of pregnancy from 24 to 21 weeks; to introduce a cooling off period after the first point of contact with a medical practitioner about a javascript:submitbutton('save'); Save Savetermination; to enable the time period from the end of the cooling off period and the date of termination to be reduced; and for connected purposes.

The Bill is proposed by Nadine Dorries, Conservative MP for Mid-Bedfordshire.

3. Later abortion – rare but desperately needed
An evidence based briefing sheet on why some women need later abortion has been produced by all of the major pro-choice organisations. Please visit http://vfc.org.uk/content/view/14/28/

Marie Stopes International has produced an important primary research document, based on interviews with women who have needed later abortion. Please see www.mariestopes.org.uk/uk/whats-new.htm

4. Enforced delays – unnecessary and distressing
A ‘cooling off’ period after a woman has made her decision is a key part of the anti-choice lobby’s agenda. Such delays have been imposed in several US states and in Australia and are frequently accompanied by a legal requirement for the woman to read misleading anti-choice literature.

The agenda is part of a condescending and baseless narrative that women are not capable of making such profound decisions about their lives and don't approach them with serious thought or discussion.

In reality women already frequently face unacceptable delays in a ‘postcode lottery’ of service provision. Women can wait up to eight weeks, forcing many to turn to the independent sector and face hundreds of pounds in fees. Any mandatory delay in the process would cause significant further distress and delay to women.

5. No law needed to reduce waiting times
NHS delays in abortion service provision are a product of the decisions taken by individual Primary Care Trusts not by law. This Bill is unnecessary to improve women’s access to services.

6. Abortion in the UK:
- Approximately one in three women have an abortion in her lifetime.
- 76 per cent of the British population support a woman’s right to choose.
- Abortion laws in the UK are more restrictive than many other European countries, where abortion on request is legal in the first three months of pregnancy.
- Abortion has been legal in Britain since 1967, but only by permission of two doctors and in restricted circumstances.
- Ten per cent of GPs consider themselves to be conscientious objectors and frequently refuse to grant women an abortion, despite General Medical Council guidelines.
- A quarter of women having abortions in England and Wales have to pay for them - there are no public funds available specifically to help poorer women in these circumstances.