Christian Concern to appeal DIY home abortion ruling to Supreme Court
from Christian Concern:
Christian Concern will take its challenge of the government’s DIY abortion policy to the Supreme Court after judges today (25 September) ruled that Matt Hancock’s approval of home abortions was lawful.
The Court of Appeal heard arguments in July that the government’s decision to allow women to have medical abortions at home during the UK lockdown, with only a phone or video consultation, went against the purpose of the Abortion Act, which was designed to prevent ‘backstreet abortions’ and to ensure that abortions take place in safe and hygienic conditions.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern commented: “The judges refused to hear evidence that would have prevented them from reaching their legal conclusions. The judgment reads like a tortuous attempt to make the Abortion Act say what the judges, service providers and the government want it to say, rather than to uphold its true meaning. We are determined to take this to the Supreme Court to correct this misguided and dangerous policy.”
Judges refuse evidence of harm caused by policy
Early Medical Abortions take place by the administration of two pills. Taking the second pill, misoprostol, at home has been permitted since 2018. But the first pill, mifepristone, was always taken at a clinic or another approved medical setting.
On 30 March 2020, after a controversial double U-turn, Mr Hancock formally approved “the home of a pregnant woman” as a class of places where abortions could take place, meaning that for the first time, abortions would be allowed without any in-person visit or consultation. Pills would simply be sent by post to a mother after a telephone consultation.
At the Court of Appeal hearing, judges refused to consider evidence that demonstrates that entirely at-home abortions present an inherent greater risk to women. However, the judgment goes on to claim that there was no evidence before the court to show that taking the first pill at home was any more dangerous than the second.
The evidence included full details of an undercover investigation as well as leaked internal documentation from the NHS revealing maternal deaths, murder investigations and pregnant women experiencing serious medical complications due to the service.
It also demonstrated that the divisional court had been misled as to the practice of ultrasound scans to determine the gestational age. To date, the Marie Stopes UK website portrays these scans as a routine part of the assessment, along with blood tests, blood pressure checks, and tests for sexually-transmitted infections.
Abortion providers’ home abortion consultations take place entirely by telephone, leaving no opportunity for clinicians to perform even common-sense checks for gestational age – leading to the abuse of the system to procure illegal and dangerous late term abortions.
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