LONDON, September 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In October 2004, LifeSiteNews.com reported that officials of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) were making referrals to a late-term abortion facility in Spain for abortions past the UK’s 24-week legal limit of gestation. The British magazine, The Telegraph exposed the practice and BPAS staff faced possible criminal charges under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and the 1967 abortion law.
This week, British Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson announced that BPAS, the organization that is responsible for up to 50,000 abortions in Britain a year, was not in contravention of the law. A Government inquiry headed by Donaldson found that BPAS had not broken the law by telling women about the Spanish clinic where they could have a later termination.
Donaldson said that BPAS should “urgently review” its readiness to hand out the phone number of the late-term abortion mill and “reconsider” the way it handles requests for late abortions.
Shortly after the revelations in The Telegraph, BPAS started advocating that the 24-week limit be lifted and late term abortions be added to the existing British death toll. At the time, the UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said that BPAS ought to be facing serious criminal charges. “For most people (and in the eyes of the law) abortion remains a serious moral question – but not for BPAS. In law, abortions are supposed to be done only for medical reasons: BPAS has been flouting the law for many years.”
Today, SPUC responded to the announcement from Donaldson saying it is self-contradictory. “Several of the telephone conversations recorded by the Sunday Telegraph appear to be offering straightforward advice on where to go to kill a baby in the womb after the 22 week limit in Spain.” And that, says SPUC is a violation of British law.
SPUC general secretary, Paul Tully, said, “It is fatuous for Sir Liam’s report to conclude that BPAS was not breaking the law. The report points clearly to the conclusion that the BPAS’s advice was illegal.”
“Health Minister Caroline Flint shows a disgraceful bias,” said Tully. “Her attitude shows contempt for the law, for the many women hurt by abortion, and for the lives of unborn children.”
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