Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 22 January (HL1523), whether the complication rates following the introduction of home use of early medical abortion pills would change if the outpatient treatment of complications were included in the statistics.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The analysis of abortion complications data published by the Department compares Abortion Notification System (ANS) data on complications known to the abortion provider at the time of the patient’s discharge from the abortion service, and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) inpatient admissions data on abortion complications. It is not recorded on ANS whether the complications reported required inpatient or outpatient treatment.
The analysis does not include HES data on the treatment of women as outpatients following a termination. This is because HES data completeness is considerably higher for inpatient data than outpatient and accident and emergency data. Including the incomplete outpatient data in our analysis would have produced inaccurate results for this population.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what methodology they are using to measure the efficacy and impact on women’s health of the 2022 changes to the Abortion Act 1967, permitting early medical termination of pregnancy taking place in the patient's home.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department works closely with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and abortion providers to ensure that abortions, including home use of medical abortion pills, are provided safely in accordance with the legal framework set by the Abortion Act 1967. Recently published data does not show an increase in abortion complications following the introduction of home use. The complication rates for Abortion Notification System and Hospital Episodes Statistics data remains similar both before and after the introduction of home use of early medical abortion pills.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government to what they attribute the increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms being submitted in respect of information on medical abortions since the relevant amendments to the Abortion Act 1967 in 2022.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms in recent years is due to a number of factors, including an ongoing trend of increasing numbers of abortions performed annually since 2017. The Department has worked with abortion providers to encourage the submission of notifications electronically.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
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
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.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
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
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.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 24 August (HL9115), what are the (1) aims, and (2) terms of reference, of the departmental project to better understand the data collected in clinical settings in respect of the HSA4 forms for recording complications arising from medical terminations; and when the impact of this project will be measured and evaluated.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 25 July (HL8598), why the HSA4 form does not capture complications arising after the time of discharge for either at-home medical abortion or other patients.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of staff training aimed at recognising the signs of potential abuse and coercion arising from at-home medical abortion.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many patients have been referred to specialist services where independent abortion providers have reason to suspect someone has experienced abuse prior to, and including their having accessed, at-home medical abortion, in each quarter since March 2020.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 24 August (HL9115), why they have no plans to update Required Standard Operating Procedures for collecting information on medical complications associated with women accessing home-use early medical abortions; and on what evidence this decision has been made.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The purpose of the Required Standard Operating Procedures (RSOPs) is to set out the relevant legislation and make explicit the conditions and requirements for all independent sector places to be approved for undertaking termination of pregnancy.
In accordance with the Abortion Act 1967 and the Abortion Regulations 1991, all abortions performed in England must be notified to the Chief Medical Officer within 14 days. Any complication known at that time should be recorded on the HSA4 abortion notification form. This requirement is clearly stated in the RSOPs.
Complications recorded in other patient record systems such as Hospital Episodes Statistics, where the woman has attended a health service after being discharged, are beyond the scope of the RSOPs.