Less than a month after a judge upheld the Scottish government’s decision to allow women to take the abortifacient drug misoprostol at home, the British government announced over the weekend that by the end of the year home use of misoprostol will be legalized. Misoprostol is the second drug of the two-drug RU-486 abortion technique.
The announcement “comes after pressure from campaigners for England to follow in the footsteps of Scotland, which last year became the first part of the UK to introduce the option, and Wales, which announced its own plans in June,” The Guardian newspaper reported.
The decision by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was vigorously denounced by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. SPUC pledged to take court action against what it labeled an “unlawful” practice.
“The abortion pill puts women through a terrible emotional and physical ordeal,” said SPUC deputy chief executive John Deighan. “The determination of the abortion industry to push women to undergo this in their own home with no real medical supervision illustrates their cavalier attitude when it comes to the well-being of women.”
The “Do It Yourself” [DIY] abortion technique “further trivialises abortion making women increasingly open to coercion, to make a choice that suits others,” Deighan charged. “In terms of the legality of enabling DIY home abortions we remain convinced that it is outside the parameters of the [1967] Abortion Act and have every intention of pursuing action through the courts.”
Women currently take both mifepristone and misoprostol at an abortion clinic, 24 to 48 hours apart.
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The move was hailed by the abortion industry and by the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Professor Lesley Regan said it was “a major step forward for women’s healthcare. She added, “This simple and practical measure will provide women with significantly more choice and is the most compassionate care we can give them.”
Earlier this month, SPUC charged that the British Medical Journal’s journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health journal has refused to publish any criticism of a widely-publicised article promoting home abortions.
The article was co-authored by, among others, Prof. Regan and Prof. Sharon Cameron of the British Association of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP). In responding to the article Dr. Anthony McCarthy, collaborating with Dr. Greg Pike on behalf of SPUC, pointed out numerous problems with the methodology used in the piece and questioned the seriousness of the sources used for some of the claims made.
Dr. McCarthy said, “We would ask the RCOG [Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists] why they are refusing to defend material that should be subject to academic scrutiny. Are they unconcerned about the evidence surrounding home abortions? Or does the RCOG now believe that academic scrutiny is not needed when it comes to promoting the agenda of the abortion industry?”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
