The UK’s largest abortion provider is offering Irish medical students one-week placements that will enable them to “gain experience of abortion care” and “witness how abortion procedures are carried out.”
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has said that the programme, which will be carried out at its largest London clinic, will give participants “the opportunity to gain an insight into the many and varied reasons why women may present with an unplanned pregnancy or a pregnancy which cannot be carried to term”.
Dr. Richard Lyus, who will mentor the students, admitted that BPAS is expecting Ireland’s abortion laws to be changed to allow for more abortions.
Opportunism
But Patrick Buckley, the Dublin representative of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, criticised the move as being nothing more than “political opportunism.”
He added: “The sad fact that some students have already accepted the BPAS internships is a cause for grave concern as are the comments attributed to their mentor.”
“We have to ask whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath, the concept of protection of the vulnerable and the commitment of doctors to ‘do no harm’?”
BPAS sent a letter to 10,000 UK medical students last year in the hope of recruiting new trainees, saying: “The choice to say yes or no is one we make on a daily basis and yet for a woman with an unplanned pregnancy it is a choice in jeopardy…the discourse is shifting and your help is needed.”
Strong feelings
Andrea Williams of Christian Concern commented: “The recent pro-life rally of 25,000 people in Dublin on Saturday shows how strongly Ireland feels about protecting the unborn child.
“BPAS has no business recruiting medical students to its cause in a country where the laws are wisely designed to protect the life of the unborn and the mother”.
In 2012, the abortion provider had an income of £25,536,000, of which £25.54 million was generated mainly through abortions.
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