A group of 650 doctors in England pushed back against a top OB-GYN who basically wants abortion to be legal for any reason up until birth.
Last week, Professor Lesley Regan, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, compared abortion to “getting your bunions sorted” and called for abortion to be decriminalized, the Daily Mail reports. Under her leadership, the RCOG will hold a vote Friday to decide whether to support the decriminalization of abortion.
Decriminalization would mean abortions basically would be legal for any reason up to birth in the UK. Currently, abortions are illegal after 24 weeks, except in cases of rape, fetal anomalies or risks to the woman’s life. Women also must receive the permission of two doctors before undergoing an abortion.
The Sun reports a large group of doctors is not happy with how Ragan is pushing her radical pro-abortion position on the RCOG.
In a letter to Regan, they wrote: “We represent a variety of positions on the issue of abortion, but believe this motion is out of keeping with both our duties as responsible professionals and the expressed wishes of British women with regards to the legality and regulation of abortion.”
They said her position basically amounts to infanticide because it supports aborting viable, late-term unborn babies for any reason. Some groups and individuals are urging the opposite, that the abortion limit be pushed back to about 20 weeks because babies now are surviving outside the womb before 24 weeks.
Here’s more from the report:
Backing the protest, Dr John Etherton, a GP and RCOG member from Lewes, East Sussex, said: “It sounds very benign to say let’s decriminalise a procedure, it sounds acceptable, but the immediate implications are that it opens the gate for infanticide.”
The 1967 Abortion Act, which is still in effect, means that abortions are illegal – unless the woman undergoing the procedure gets consent from two doctors.
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RCOG’s council is meeting today to decide whether the college’s official policy should be changed to back full decriminalisation.
The British pro-life group Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) reported about the situation at LifeNews earlier this week:
Prof Regan called for the rule that two doctors must sign for an abortion be scrapped. “At the moment it’s illegal, it’s a crime, and it’s the only medical procedure which requires two doctors’ signatures.” she said. “Theoretically a woman who procures an abortion by purchasing drugs online could be subject to a criminal prosecution and could face life imprisonment. It would be perfectly reasonable to have one doctor to sign consent like anything else. If you go and get your bunions sorted … you would go to a consultation … then you take a decision and the doctor who was competent to undertake the procedure would sign the form too, and that would go forward.”
She also claimed abortions were “either safe in a country with unrestricted access or they become unsafe and result in death. If you don’t support safe abortion then by definition you are supporting and condoning unsafe abortion and serious injuries and death.”
Dr. Anthony McCarthy of SPUC said abortion is treated differently than other medical procedures because it is unlike any other – it kills an unborn baby.
“It beggars belief that Professor Regan describes a life-ending procedure, a lethal attack on an unborn child, in the same breath as going to ‘get your bunions sorted,’” McCarthy said. “Women grieve their babies sometimes for years, acutely regretting the speed and casual approach of abortion providers, and their failure to alert them to help available to have the baby.”
If Ragan gets her way, the RCOG would join the Royal College of Midwives and British Medical Association, which already voted to support the decriminalization of abortion.
