Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what risk assessment his Department made of the 30 March 2020 amendment to the Abortion Act 1967; and what resources his Department has allocated to mitigate the risks that were identified.

On 30 March, Ministerial powers under the Abortion Act 1967 were used to temporarily approve women’s homes as a class of place where both abortion pills can be taken for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks’ gestation (subject to eligibility following a telephone or e-consultation with a clinician). Doctors’ homes have also been approved as a place from which abortion medication can be prescribed.

In reaching this decision, account was taken of wider advice regarding the need for some groups to isolate, and information from service providers that a number of services were closed due to staff shortages and significant numbers of appointments were being cancelled. Access to abortion is an urgent matter: the procedure’s risk increases at later gestations and there are legal gestational limits for accessing services. Clinical evidence from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence demonstrates that it is safe for both abortion pills to be taken at home for early medical abortion. Departmental officials are engaging regularly with abortion service providers and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to monitor the necessity for these measures and provision of services in accordance with these temporary measures. The temporary approvals will end once the risk from the COVID-19 pandemic recedes.