by Caroline Johnson, Conservative Home
MPs are about to consider the sensitive subject of abortion when amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill are debated.
Abortion is a complex subject that divides people. However, I hope every MP will agree, whatever their personal views, that safeguarding considerations are paramount and we have a responsibility to ensure women who access abortion services are kept safe.
It is for this reason that I have tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would reinstate prior in-person consultations for women who wish to have an abortion. Face-to-face appointments were mandatory until the pandemic when the ‘pills by post’ scheme, which allows women to obtain abortion pills via telemedicine and then take them at home, was introduced as a temporary measure. Following a government consultation which found that 70 per cent of respondents believed the scheme should end after the pandemic, the government announced in-person appointments would return from summer 2022.
However, this decision was narrowly overturned via an amendment tabled to the Health and Care Bill in March 2022, which made the pills by post scheme permanent. I was very concerned about this at the time and sadly my concerns have been borne out in the years since.
Restoring the requirement for in-person appointments would allow clinicians more easily to assess the possibility of coercion or abuse, as well as being able to accurately assess a woman’s gestational age and any health concerns.
Without an in-person appointment, there is no guarantee that abortion pills won’t fall into the wrong hands. Six months ago, Stuart Worby was jailed after persuading a friend’s girlfriend to phone up an abortion provider, pretend to be pregnant and obtain pills which Worby then used to induce a woman to have an abortion against her will or knowledge, after spiking her drink.