WESTMINSTER, London (LifeSiteNews) – The Department of Health and Social Care in the U.K. has announced that it will be ending the “DIY abortion” scheme whereby women were able to take abortion pills at home since the start of the COVID-era.
In a statement February 24, Maggie Throup MP, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), announced that the scheme would be extended for six months and then end at midnight on August 29 of this year.
Announcing the return to the pre-COVID abortion arrangements, Throup stated that “[t]he wellbeing and safety of women requiring access to abortion services has been, and will continue to be, our first and foremost priority.”
“As with any healthcare service, this measure will be kept under review,” added Throup.
The “temporary” scheme, introduced by then Health Secretary Matt Hancock in March 2020 at the start of the COVID restrictions, allowed women to receive abortion pills by mail following a phone consultation, instead of having to make an in-person visit to a clinic. Mothers are allowed to take the pills up to the tenth week of pregnancy under the scheme, but would be left to report the date of conception themselves.
Data show that the DIY-abortion pills were widely used, with abortion rates in 2020 being the highest since the abortion act was introduced — some 209,917 abortion in England and Wales alone during the year.
From April 2020 through September 2021, 180,182 women in England had abortions at home using abortion pills, misoprostol and mifepristone, or taking at least one pill, misoprostol, at home after taking mifepristone at a clinic.
Over 10,000 women in England needed hospitalization following the abortion pills during 2020, and ambulance calls due to abortion complications rose by 54% during the same year.
Despite these data, abortion campaigners responded angrily to the scheme’s announced end, with Clare Murphy, the chief executive of pro-abortion British Pregnancy Advisory Service, saying the news was “disastrous for women.”
“The Government must stop playing politics with women’s health,” said Murphy. “It’s time to put the needs of women first.”
Murphy even described the DIY abortion scheme as “a safe, effective, and world-leading service,” despite an undercover investigation revealing that U.K. abortion providers (including BPAS) sent pills via mail without completing basic checks about the people ordering them.
Pro-life campaigners have welcomed the news, with Right to Life UK’s Catherine Robinson noting that DIY abortion “has presented serious risks to women and girls in abusive situations. It has allowed severe complications to occur, as well as abortions beyond the legal limit.”
Meanwhile Michael Robinson, Executive Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said the scheme had “inflicted untold damage to countless mothers and their babies. SPUC welcomes the decision to reverse this cruel policy which ignored the needs of women.”
Both Right to Life UK and SPUC lamented the government’s commitment to extend the scheme until August, with Michael Robinson stating: “[G]iven that the Minister says that the wellbeing and safety of women is their first priority, they should end the scheme immediately.”
Christian Concern, which launched legal proceedings against the government over the abortion pill scheme, noted how pro-life politicians’ fears about the impact of the scheme were “entirely founded, though abortion providers have done all they can to whitewash its appalling safety record.”
“The government needs to stand behind this decision with confidence over the next six months as the abortion lobby does everything it can to reverse the decision again,” said Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern.
The government also announced the results of a consultation on DIY abortion, with of 70% the 18,834 responses stating that the scheme should “end immediately.” This result of the consultation, which closed February 26, 2021, has been supported by a group of over 600 medical professionals who appealed for an end to the scheme in May 2021.
“The decision to permit the taking of medical abortion pills at home is a dangerous policy that must not be made permanent,” stated the open letter, calling for Hancock’s scheme to end “to protect the welfare of women.”