News

LONDON/ BARCELONA, October 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), is responsible for nearly 50,000 abortions annually in Britain. Most of the abortions provided are legal and covered by the National Health system, but it has been uncovered that some of its activities are illegal and may leave the organization open to prosecution under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and the 1967 abortion law.

An investigation by the Telegraph newspaper found the organization is referring women to a late term abortion facility in Spain where abortion is also illegal after 22 weeks. When the Telegraph contacted the head of BPAS, Ann Furedi, she responded, “So, what’s your point exactly?”  The Telegraph has revealed what it calls a “horrific underground industry” for late term abortions on healthy babies. A Telegraph reporter, pregnant with a perfectly healthy 26-week child, went undercover telling several advisors with (BPAS) that she wanted to abort her child.

In each case she was referred to Clinica Ginemedex in Barcelona to which she traveled. The clinic did an ultrasound on the reporter and agreed to do the abortion with no questions asked. Staff at the Barcelona facility admitted to falsifying paperwork saying that they “play with the law so it’s not completely legal,” and that they sometimes commit abortions on children as old as 30 weeks. The legal cut-off date for abortion of healthy children in Britain is 24 weeks and in Spain a clear threat to the mother’s life is required for abortion over 22 weeks.  BPAS’s Furedi denied that there was any financial connection between the organization and Ginemedex. She responded to questions from the Telegraph, saying, “What you are saying is not untrue, in that we have visited that clinic as we have visited many other clinics in the US, Germany and beyond. There are doctors who work at BPAS who work at clinics in Spain and the Netherlands, I don’t really see what the issue is.”

When confronted with the discovery that the Spanish clinic was breaking laws in Spain as well as Britain, Furedi responded, “I am not going to comment on the way in which the law in Spain is interpreted and I am not going to comment on the way that any abortion clinic interprets that law.”  To read Telegraph coverage:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/10/nbpas10.xml   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/10/nbpas510.xml   Investigating reporter’s account:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/10/nbpas110.xml   Commentary: “It is time to think what it means to kill a foetus after 24 weeks”  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/10/nbpas310.xml   (with files from Pro-Life E-News)  ph