by Andrew Halloway
Despite increasing evidence that home abortions are unsafe, the government is planning to make them a permanent option.
Yet according to CitizenGo, a senior NHS midwife has revealed that two women have died after taking the abortion pill at home and another 13 “serious incidents” are being investigated.
A woman is also considering legal action against abortion provider Marie Stopes after needing emergency surgery after a DIY abortion went wrong.
Christian Concern have found that women can be sent abortion pills despite giving false names, false addresses, false dates of birth and false gestational dates, showing how DIY abortion is “wide open to abuse” and “dangerous and illegal practices”.
Caroline Farrow of CitizenGo says: “The only people who benefit from DIY home abortion is the abortion industry… DIY home abortion allows them to carry out their business at a fraction of the cost.”
The campaigning organisation adds that some women have described the DIY abortion process as “hell”, “horrible” and “a lot worse than I expected”. Some also complain of being rushed into a decision over the phone and not being able to access counselling to help them with their pregnancy.
On 10 November an online conference updating church leaders on the home abortion scheme was hosted by Brephos, the church project of Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK (CBRUK). Speakers included Andrea Williams of Christian Concern, Intercessors for Britain director Dave Borlase and the former director of Marie Stopes International, Kevin Duffy.
Duffy shared revelations from a ‘secret shopper’ project in which abortion providers sent abortifacient drugs to women who weren’t pregnant, or who only wanted an abortion to keep their “bikini body”, or who intended to pass the pills on to another woman.
In September, Christian Concern lost a Court of Appeal challenge on DIY abortion, even though recent polls suggest that the majority of UK women oppose it. A ComRes pool showed 77 per cent believe doctors should see a woman in person to verify that she is choosing abortion without being coerced, and another survey found that 92 per cent agreed. Andrea gave us an overview of the history of abortion law and culture here in the UK, relating it to other life issues such as embryo research and artificial insemination as well as the weakening of marriage and the family unit, to help us to see how we have arrived at where we are today, before giving us a detailed run-down of that crucial week in March when the Government performed a double U-turn to produce the DIY abortion provision we have now to this day.
Christian Concern have been pursuing a judicial review of this decision by the Government.
One particularly enlightening and sobering perspective borne out of Andrea’s close engagement with this sequence of events was the power enjoyed by the abortion lobby to get things done through their allies in the civil service – even to the point of pressurising and overruling, effectively, Government ministers.
In November, 277 Northern Ireland healthcare workers signed an open letter to Minister of Health Robin Swann opposing DIY abortion in the province, where it was still illegal.
CitizenGo have raised a petition asking the government to stop DIY abortions and put the health of pregnant women first.
A video of the conference and details of apologetics training led by Aisling Goodison can be seen at www.brephos.org
Down’s ACTIVISTS challenge abortion law
A woman with Down’s syndrome and the mother of a son with the syndrome have been granted the right to contest abortion legislation.
The law currently allows Down’s babies to be aborted right up until birth. Heidi Carter and Máire Lea-Wilson, whose case is entirely funded by donations, call the current law “deeply offensive”.
Their lawyer, Paul Conrathe, says: “The court has recognised it is arguable that the state is acting unlawfully towards babies with Down’s syndrome.”
Heidi, 25, told The Sunday Telegraph that the current law “makes me feel like I shouldn’t exist, and that I’d be better off dead in the eyes of the law.”
Over 90 per cent of women whose unborn babies are diagnosed with Down’s syndrome now choose abortion. The case is likely to go to trial next year.
Mrs Carter also featured in the Aug/Sept issue of HEART, shortly before her marriage.
Pro-life activists under attack
Pro-family and pro-life pressure group CitizenGo reports that two of their campaigners “are under relentless attack from extreme Leftists”. In the UK, Caroline Farrow is being dragged through “expensive and baseless legal battles”, and “her family and young children have been stalked and harassed online”. The other, Ann Kioko in Kenya, is constantly harassed by “abortion radicals” who “bombard her with legal threats”. They have even followed her to her home, forcing her and her family to move. CitizenGo reports that billionaire George Soros’ OpenDemocracy organisation has targeted them.