Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the safeguards used in the abortion pills by post scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Following amendments to the 1967 Abortion Act that allow women in England and Wales to take early medical abortion (EMA) pills at home, the Department have taken forward work to ensure that robust safeguarding processes for home-use EMA are embedded across all services. This included publication of national safeguarding guidance for under 18 year olds accessing EMA services, and strengthening the Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures, which all independent abortion providers must comply with, to require providers to have robust safeguarding processes in place to identify and support women and girls who need it.