Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of research on abortion at home that has not been co-authored by people representing abortion providers; and what approach his Department takes in respect of research that is undertaken by people and organisations that have a financial and reputational interest in its results.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. The Government committed to undertake a public consultation on whether to make permanent the temporary measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation for all eligible women. The consultation has now closed and we will be considering all evidence submitted and plan to publish our response later this year. Any evidence or research submitted as part of this consultation will be reviewed and considered alongside any potential conflicts of interest.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is undertaking research on abortion pill reversal procedures.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is not undertaking any research on abortion pill reversal procedures.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with the Secretary of State for Education to make it his policy to prevent distribution of the Abortion and Abortion Care Factsheet produced by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in 2019 in schools until it has been (a) peer reviewed and (b) updated with recent research developments on fetal pain.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is not responsible for production of this factsheet and has no role in its distribution. It is for individual schools to determine whether they use the factsheet.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 29 December 2020 (HL11398), when the research by the King’s Fund on patterns of abortion uptake in England, commissioned by the Department for Health and Social Care, will be published.
Answered by Lord Bethell
This work was paused in 2020 due to COVID-19. The research is now due to conclude in late spring and will be published shortly afterwards.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a response to Early Day Motion 1340 on Fetal Pain.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines on ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ and ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, which are available at the following links:
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the information provided to women undergoing consultation for late-term abortions; and whether women undergoing those consultations are informed that a child could live at 22 weeks outside the womb and feel pain.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines on The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion and Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice, which is available at the following links:
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf
The RCOG have identified the Report ‘Fetal Awareness: Review and Recommendations for Practice’ should be reviewed, following the recent publication of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidance on best practice abortion care.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2019 to Question 269708, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' steps to prevent foetal pain since July 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines on ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ and ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, which are available at the following links:
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to ensure the use of direct fetal analgesia prior to late-term abortions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion’ and ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, which are available at the following links:
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf
https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on second trimester abortion of the finding of the British Medical Journal article, Reconsidering fetal pain, published on 14 January 2020 that pain emerges around 18-20 weeks of gestation.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guideline on ‘Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’, published in March 2010.
The Department has brought the article by Dr Stuart W G Derbyshire and John C Bockmann to the attention of the RCOG. It is for the RCOG to consider whether to revise the guidelines, having looked at the available evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what self-care intervention sexual and reproductive health and rights services they support in developing countries.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK supports safe, accessible and affordable self-care interventions as part of our commitment to ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in developing countries. This is more important than ever given the detrimental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on accessibility of SRHR services.
The UK has invested in the roll out of self-injectable contraceptives in over 35 countries through our partner UNFPA Supplies, our flagship Women's Integrated Health Programme (WISH) and FCDO's bilateral health programmes.
The UK is also working with governments to increase the availability and affordability of quality-assured combi-packs for safe medical abortion in contexts where it is legal. UK funded research is helping to develop a new self-care product, a monthly vaginal ring to help reduce the risk of HIV transmission which can be administered by women themselves. And we are working with partners, including WISH, to expand the use of self-care delivery and telemedicine as part of their COVID-19 response to maintain access to vital SRHR services.