Asked by: David Amess (Conservative - Southend West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has (a) conducted and (b) evaluated into the circumstances in which a typical abortion is performed on the grounds that it is necessary to prevent the physical or mental health of any existing children of the family of the pregnant woman; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
No research has been commissioned by the Department. It is for two doctors, in the light of their clinical opinion of the circumstances of the pregnant woman's individual case, to form an opinion in good faith that one and the same of the lawful grounds in the Abortion Act are met.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 7 May 2014, Official Report, column 230W, on abortion, whether his Department has formed a view as to when the Royal college of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians publication, The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, should be updated in order to take into account new research; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
An updated guideline, The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, was published in 2011. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is maintaining a watching brief on the needto review recommendations in the light of new research evidence.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the meta-analysis by Huang Y et al. published in the journal Cancer Causes Control in November 2013, investigating the link between termination of pregnancy and breast cancer.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (RCOG) reviewed its evidence based guidance on abortion (The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion) in 2011 in which the issue of a link between abortion and breast cancer was given careful consideration.
When the RCOG carries out the next review of its guidance, consideration will be given to all relevant research and evidence available that has come to light, to help inform the guidance and recommendations.