Abortion: Telemedicine

(asked on 7th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that telemedicine abortion providers are not able to supply abortion drugs to people over the legal limit for that procedure.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 14th November 2023

We have no plans to make an assessment of the adequacy of this policy’s operation.

Parliament decides the circumstances under which abortion is permitted. It would be for Parliament to decide whether to change the law on abortion. The Department continues to work closely with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and abortion providers to ensure abortions are only performed in accordance with the legal requirements set down by Parliament in the 1967 Abortion Act.

Home use of early medical abortion pills is permitted if the pregnancy has not exceeded 10 weeks gestation at the time the first medicine in the course is administered. If there is any uncertainty about the gestation of the pregnancy, the woman should attend an in-person appointment. If she does not attend in-person, the doctor would not be able to form an opinion in good faith that the pregnancy is below 10 weeks gestation and therefore would not be able to prescribe abortion pills for home use.

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