Abortion

Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts

Tuesday 4th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

In answer to the last question I have no firm information about when the police inquiries will complete their course. They have been ongoing for some months. The noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, is right to raise his concern, but I can again state emphatically that under the law of this country it is illegal to perform an abortion on grounds of sex selection alone. If evidence of such practices comes to light, the penalties are that the doctor or doctors concerned may be referred to the GMC. The Care Quality Commission will be called in and there will be the possibility of police investigation and prosecution resulting. This is not something that any provider of NHS-funded abortions should ever consider doing.

[Lord Steel of Aikwood]

Does my noble friend agree that the real scourge of illegal abortion occurred before the 1967 reforms, when every hospital in the land had patients admitted for septic and incomplete abortion, and up to 50 women a year died as a result of criminal abortion? Does he accept that, in addition to the gender selection question, another worrying feature is the number of women reporting for repeat abortions, who appear to be using abortion as a form of contraception? Does that concern his department?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I pay tribute to my noble friend for the role that he played in bringing the 1967 Act to the statute book. We have no particular evidence that repeat abortion is a rising issue. Contraception prevents the establishment of a pregnancy and the number of women visiting contraception clinics has, I am pleased to say, gone up, particularly among the young. We are seeing a fall in the number of abortions in the teenage age group. Unfortunately we are also seeing a rise in abortions in the 20 to 29 age group. While I agree with my noble friend’s initial comments, the focus of the public health effort has to be to bear down on the figures as we see them today and make sure that all women have access to contraceptive advice.