Children’s doctor who treats premature babies quits the doctors’ union after it voted to decriminalise abortion

Jul 2, 2017 by Jill

by Jonathan Petre and Stephen Adams, Mail on Sunday:

A children’s doctor who treats premature babies has quit the doctors’ union after it voted for the total decriminalisation of abortion.

Dr Jessica Hudson, who works in the neonatal unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, resigned from the British Medical Association (BMA) following its controversial decision on Tuesday.

A further 20 doctors have told The Mail on Sunday they will also cut ties with the BMA and more are expected to follow.

Two-thirds of delegates at the group’s annual conference in Bournemouth voted for the motion, which critics said could open the door for abortion on demand up to birth.

Last week, this newspaper revealed that 1,500 doctors had signed a letter warning that the decision would ‘severely damage’ the reputation of the medical profession.

Dr Hudson, 29, said she could not reconcile her union’s new ‘extreme’ position on abortion with her lifesaving work.

She said: ‘As a doctor who looks after babies from 23 weeks, I am really happy that the babies we look after have a complete right to life enshrined in law.

‘We wouldn’t dream of withdrawing care from a baby in one of the incubators at our neonatal unit just because parents didn’t want it.

‘Just because a baby is in a womb, rather than an incubator, I still believe that it deserves legal protection over its rights.’ Dr Hudson added: ‘The BMA voted that abortion should be regulated as if it was just another medical procedure, but I really believe that abortion is massively different from an appendicectomy.’

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