Last week there was yet another story about how the UK’s abortion laws – and the Department of Health’s moves to make abortion even easier – are out of step with medical opinion.
In response to the news that the Department of Health and some Primary Care Trusts are considering including allowing early medical abortions to be carried out in GP surgeries and new polyclinics, the GP newspaper reported that:
* One in three GPs would refuse to work in GP surgeries or clinics that offered abortions 61% of GPs questioned do not believe that GP practices should be offering early medical abortions at all
* Half of the GPs wanted to see the current 24-week (6 month) abortion limit lowered.
* One in 10 GPs called for it to be set at 15 weeks or less
* Three quarters of GPs believe that two doctors should continue to sign the form agreeing to an abortion, despite the pro-abortion lobby’s attempts to reduce this to one signatory
The extent of the opposition from GPs is in stark contrast with the Department of Health efforts to make abortion easier.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, RCGP spokeswoman for women’s health, has warned that abortions would become “trivialised” if offered in primary care. Dr Jarvis has already witnessed an increase in the number of women coming forward for abortions, with many women now using abortion as a form of contraception.
Dr Trevor Stammers, chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship and a GP in south London, said: “Medical abortions are not a harmless procedure. Uterine rupture and bleeding, though rare, will occur and GPs should rightly be reluctant to take on the risk. I will play no part in brutalising women in such a way and will do all I can to try and help women to see that abortion may not be the best way out in the long run.”
April 19th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I’m doing a lesson on contraception and in a roundabout way looked into abortions, they are hooriffic, if abortions can be advertised why oh why is there not hard hitting adverts explaing exactly what happens in an abortion and pushing contraception to avoid the need.most women/girls seeing the results of a termination or a video of it would surely not choose it and would take more care. With most sites such as netdoctor calling it a simple surgical procedure it’s no wonder there are so many. Perhaps putting it with gps who don’t want the abortion is the answer at least women might get both sides and come to an informed choice although i feel strongly that expect for geniue medical issues we females do not have the right to delbratly end another one even if we are carrying it.