Ex-abortion insider reveals advice to government was ‘misleading’
from Christian Concern:
In the judicial review of the government’s decision to allow home abortions this week, the government revealed the advice it received to make this decision.
Insider’s expert witness statement
The judicial review was supported by an expert witness statement from Kevin Duffy. Kevin Duffy began his statement by explaining that he is a former director of a major abortion provider, Marie Stopes International. He is therefore an insider from the abortion industry. Mr Duffy was appointed in November 2014 as the director responsible for the development and implementation of Marie Stopes International’s global clinics standard operating procedures manual. This is an extremely influential position in Marie Stopes. He became an independent consultant to Marie Stopes International from March 2017 to February 2019. Whilst working for Marie Stopes he travelled to fifteen different country programmes and conducted management review visits of more than 100 abortion clinics.
The need for a clinical visit
Civil Servant, Andrea Duncan, provided a witness statement for the government. She is the Head of policy for Alcohol, Sexual and Reproductive Health (which includes abortion policy) and Physical Activity in the Healthy Behaviours Team in the Department of Health and Social Care. Her statement was made to explain the government’s decision to grant approval for home abortions.
Andrea Duncan omitted the key reasons why a clinical visit has been required before the first abortion pill is prescribed. Her statement made it appear as if the clinical visit is merely to collect the pill. In fact, as Mr Duffy explains in his witness statement, various clinical assessments are made in that visit, including an ultrasound scan and a blood pressure check, blood tests, and various other tests. The ultrasound scans, in particular, enable an accurate assessment of the gestational age. Without this, the gestational age is an estimate based on the mother’s recollection of when her last period was. The new regulations only allow home abortions for less than 10 weeks gestation. As the gestational age increases, so do the risks of side-effects. Ms Duncan omits to mention any of the clinical tests that are routinely carried out and important to assess the risks of the pills for the patient. Therefore, there is no mention of the increased risks to the mothers of not having a clinical assessment as a result of the new regulations.
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