Doctors to be consulted on easier abortions plan

Abortions could be carried out in family planning clinics, GP-run polyclinics and cottage hospitals after the Government claimed that pilot schemes designed to make access to terminations easier for women had been successful.

Doctors and patients are now to be consulted on whether to allow the procedures outside hospitals and private clinics for the first time since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967. But the plan was immediately attacked by pro-life MPs who are committed to tightening the law on abortion.

The move applies only to medical abortions carried out using drugs within the first nine weeks of pregnancy. Surgical abortions and those performed after nine weeks will be restricted to hospitals and clinics.

Jim Dobbin, the Labour chairman of the cross-party Pro-Life Group said: "We are against this because we think it would increase the number of abortions. Frankly, it has become an industry now." Mr Dobbin said the group had been expecting the Government to seek to expand the range of places in which abortions could take place following backing for the idea by the cross-party Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology.

He said MPs were anticipating a government amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill this month to allow abortions induced by drugs outside hospital settings.

The Pro-Life Group will strongly oppose any change in the law to make abortion easier, said Mr Dobbin. It is also campaigning for a reduction in the upper time limit from 24 weeks to at least 20 weeks.

The pilot study was carried out in Chalfont and Gerrards Cross cottage hospital and in a unit within St Mary's hospital, London. The results showed that women welcomed the informality and increased availability of staff support.

"This confirms the experience from other countries which already offer early medical abortions using drugs," added the Department of Health.

The researchers from Southampton University concluded large community contraceptive centres, cottage hospitals or polyclinics could offer a safe service for women, said the department.

The Public Health minister Dawn Primarolo said: "Our priority is to reduce the time women have to wait for an abortion at what is already a very difficult time for them. We have made considerable progress in this, with 65 per cent of women having their abortion at under 10 weeks in 2006, up from 51 per cent in 2002. We want to investigate whether patients can be more comfortable and feel as supported in a less clinical setting.

"However, the safety of patients must remain paramount and we will now consult with the local NHS and patients to find out if there is a demand for such a service and how it could best be delivered."

Last October, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee issued a report calling for easier access to abortions. MPs on the committee also called for the current requirement for two doctors to sign forms before an abortion to be scrapped after the Royal College of Obstetricians described the requirement as anachronistic.

The committee said nurses and midwives with training and guidance should be able to carry out all stages of early medical and surgical abortions.

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