In a landmark judgment today, the High Court has rejected a legal bid by BPAS (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service), amajor abortion provider, to allow women to take some abortion pills at home rather than at a clinic.
BPAS had put forward a legal bid to loosen the law in this area by arguing that the wording of the Abortion Act 1967 needed to be interpreted in the light of new medical advances, one of which is the availability of abortion pills, where women are able to end their pregnancies by taking two different drugs. The first drug is always taken at a clinic and the wording of the Act means that the second drug (which brings about the miscarriage of the baby) would also need to be taken at a clinic. However, BPAS argued that the word ‘treatment’ in the Abortion Act doesn’t necessarily mean that a woman needs to be at a clinic to take the second pill, and therefore the Act should be interpreted to mean that women can choose to take the second pill at home. BPAS argued that women would feel more comfortable at home, and that costs would be kept down. However, the Court disagreed that the wording of the Act could be interpreted in this way, and ruled that the Act did not allow the pills to be taken by women at home.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said: “We welcome the Court’s decision and its unwillingness to interpret the Abortion Act in a way which could harm thousands of women and their families. It is a welcome message in a society which has been led to believe that abortion is an easy ‘answer’ to an unplanned pregnancy. This legal challenge was put forward by a major abortion provider despite the opposition of the Department of Health, and despite concerns about the safety and well-being of woman at home administering such a drug to themselves and inducing a miscarriage. Women need support during what can be a very traumatic time. If women self-abort in their own homes they could find it isolating and dangerous. Britain has some of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe and one of the highest abortion rates, and we need to reduce the number of abortions and tighten the law, not relax it.”
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