By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 4:36 AM on 13th January 2011
Women could have a ‘DIY abortion’ in their home within months under controversial plans to change the law.
They would be handed drugs to take to terminate their pregnancy in familiar surroundings rather than in a hospital or clinic.
Britain’s largest abortion provider is going to the High Court to try to scrap existing rules which state that abortion pills can be taken only under the supervision of a doctor or nurse.
DIY: The proposals concern 'early medical abortions' which are induced by powerful tablets and can be carried out only in the first nine weeks of pregnancy (posed picture)
The case is expected to take up to two months and if the challenge succeeds women would then be able to take the tablets at home immediately.
Critics think this will mean that powerful abortion drugs are seen as ‘no worse than aspirin’.
The proposals concern ‘early medical abortions’ which are induced by powerful tablets and can be carried out only in the first nine weeks of pregnancy.
Around 75,700 are done each year, representing a third of all terminations. The proportion has doubled in the past decade.
Currently, women in the first nine weeks of pregnancy who choose an early medical abortion rather than a surgical procedure take two sets of tablets between 24 and 48 hours apart under the supervision of a doctor or nurse at a hospital or clinic.
GP surgeries can also administer the pills, although few do so.
Risks in a 'safe' procedure
Pro-abortion campaigners insist early medical abortions are safe. But there are some dangerous side-effects, although deaths are rare.
Women are twice as likely to need hospital treatment after this type of abortion compared to a surgical termination.
Up to 1.5 per cent of patients are admitted to hospital with complications including excessive bleeding.
Around 1 per cent develop pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause infertility. Most patients suffer pain or abdominal cramps.
Other common side-effects include diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
A handful have developed life-threatening toxic shock syndrome, when bacteria infect the blood. There have been two deaths in Britain caused by early medical abortion since it was first offered in 1991.
The first drug causes the lining of the womb to become unstable. The second prompts the womb to contract and push the foetus out.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) wants to change the law to allow women to take the second drug at home. The first would still be administered as at present.
The charity, which carries out a quarter of all abortions in the UK, says its proposal would make the procedure ‘easier’. They say it is ‘unnecessary’ and ‘ludicrous’ to make women return to a clinic.
BPAS will go to the High Court on January 28 to demand an updated interpretation of the 1967 Abortion Act.
The Department of Health is contesting this and believes the law should remain the same.
BPAS says women suffer ‘unnecessary anxiety’ travelling to clinics and that most would choose to take the tablets at home.
They say it is common practice in the U.S., Canada, France, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS said: ‘The issue of safety and acceptability is beyond doubt.
Stressful: The British Pregnancy Advisory Service says women suffer 'unnecessary anxiety' travelling to clinics and that most would choose to take the tablets at home (posed picture)
It is wrong to compromise women’s care through unnecessary restrictions imposed by officials who fear criticism from those who oppose abortion in principle.’
A spokesman for Life, the anti-abortion charity, said: ‘Clearly, BPAS’s intention is to increase access to abortion yet further, by making it little more than a pill-popping exercise.
‘The psychological and physical health of women will be compromised should this High Court challenge succeed.’
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