Abortion law reform plans criticised by women’s groups

Charities and health bodies call on equalities minister to intervene and protect rights of women to get impartial advice A coalition of women’s groups has written to the equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, urging her to intervene in the row over backbenchers’ attempts to reform abortion protocols. They say the proposals could delay abortions and allow anti-abortion groups to counsel women. Featherstone is being asked to seek a guarantee within government that the current system won’t change, ahead of a potential vote that could overhaul the existing counselling services for women seeking to terminate a pregnancy The signatories to the letter include the Fawcett Society, the Women’s Health Equalities Consortium, the Medical Women’s Federation and the National Assembly of Women as well as the trade union Unison. It will pile pressure on the Liberal Democrat minister, who has faced criticisms that she has failed to intervene on other coalition policies that Labour claims adversely affected women. “Preventing abortion providers from offering decision-making support opens the door for organisations opposed in principle to abortion to become formally involved in counselling women on their pregnancy options,” the letter says. “Previous governments have always acted on evidence and taken guidance from expert medical professionals. There is no evidence of a need for change in this area and no support from professional clinical organisations for such change.” The intervention comes amid wranglings in government over how to handle an amendment that could be selected when the health bill returns to the Commons next week, which would mean all women seeking abortions would be offered counselling independent of the abortion provider, in a move that could strip charities that provide the services of their current role. It is being proposed by the Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries and Labour’s Frank Field and backed by a campaign with links to anti-abortion groups. On Sunday, the Department of Health said that it would go ahead with plans to introduce independent counselling and consult on how it would work, in a move that was interpreted as caving into the campaign. After an intervention from No 10 and furious Lib Dems, the government announced it will not support the amendment – though MPs will still get a free vote – with David Cameron and DoH ministers voting against. It also reworded its position on the plans, saying it would consult on the “best” counselling options for women but that the outcome was not a foregone conclusion. Anne Milton, the public health minister, wrote to coalition MPs yesterday to clarify the government’s position and confirm that the health ministers would vote against it. On Thursday, the Right to Know campaign, which is supporting Dorries’s and Field’s campaign and is backed by some known anti-abortionists, responded robustly to the government’s opposition to the plan. It published a poll of MPs conducted in April, prior to the row over the implications of the move, which found that some 92% backed the statement. “A woman should have a right to impartial advice when considering having an abortion, from a source that has no commercial interest in her decision.” A spokeswoman for the campaign said: “The widespread support for the objectives of this campaign is unsurprising.

Posted by on September 1, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.