{"id":293945,"date":"2023-06-29T10:37:34","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=293945"},"modified":"2023-11-06T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T21:41:16","slug":"in-person-abortion-8-month-diy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/in-person-abortion-8-month-diy\/","title":{"rendered":"UK MPs want in-person abortion consultations reinstated due to 8-month \u2018DIY\u2019 abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Right to Life UK<\/a>) MPs and Peers have called for the reinstatement of in-person consultations before medical abortions after campaigners exploited the distressing case of an eight-month abortion to call for its legalisation up to birth.<\/p>\n

Following the tragic news earlier this week of a woman using illegally-obtained abortion pills to abort her baby, Lily, at around 8 months gestation, pro-abortion parliamentarians questioned the Government in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in an attempt to push for the legalisation of abortion up to birth.<\/p>\n

Carla Foster, 44, used the British Pregnancy Advisory Service\u2019s (BPAS) \u201cpills by post\u201d scheme to obtain abortion pills during lockdown when she was 32-34 weeks pregnant. Abortion is available in the UK up to 24 weeks gestation, but \u2018DIY\u2019 at-home abortion (when pills are posted to the woman after a telephone consultation) is only available up to 10 weeks. Ms Foster pleaded guilty to a charge under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) 1861: administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion.<\/p>\n

Today, pro-choice parliamentarians, Diana Johnson MP and Baroness Thornton, each asked the Government for statements concerning the recent prosecution under the OAPA, in an attempt to call for the repeal of Section 58 of the Act. As the Abortion Act 1967 was passed to create exemptions to 58 and 59 of the OAPA along with the Infant Life Preservation Act, fully decriminalising abortion through repealing these two pieces of legislation would make the Abortion Act 1967 redundant in England and Wales.<\/p>\n

This change in law would scrap the current 24-week time limit for abortion, and abortion would be available on demand, for any reason, up to birth. The upper time limit would be completely abolished.<\/p>\n

Peers call for reinstatement of in-person appointments<\/h3>\n

In the House of Lords, following an oral question from Baroness Thornton about section 58 of the OAPA, Baroness Eaton asked the Government to \u201curgently propose legislation to reinstate the requirement for women to be seen in person at least once before being prescribed abortion pills\u201d in order to prevent such tragic offences from occurring again.<\/p>\n