MPs have heard just how easily abortion pills may be falsely obtained under the pills-by -post scheme, enabling abusers to coerce women into abortions. The devastating findings were delivered at a parliamentary event in Westminster hosted by SPUC.
On 6 May, SPUC hosted a parliamentary event to raise awareness about the dangers of the pills-by-post scheme. SPUC CEO John Deighan was also in attendance.
Kevin Duffy presented the findings of a project devised to see how easily abortion pills can be obtained under false pretences from providers over the phone. A team of 26 volunteers made a total of 85 phones that provided fake information and profiles.
In all 26 cases, pills were successfully obtained through the post.
The event, titled “Pills by Post: An Abuser’s Secret Weapon”, also exposed how dangerous the pills-by-post policy is. The spike in criminal cases was attributed directly to the scheme as well.
MPs and their staffers heard compelling evidence against pills by post, which was also related to current abortion statistics and the UK’s plummeting birth rate – now at 1.53, well below 2.1 rate required to sustain a population.
Last year, Stuart Worby was found guilty of illegally drugging his girlfriend with abortion pills, causing the death of her unborn child. Worby conspired with a friend, whose partner had a telemedicine consultation with an abortion provider under the false pretence that she was pregnant and wanted an abortion.
The unborn baby died the next day, and the mother is now unable to have children. “The only baby that I could have had was the one I lost”, the mother told a court in Norwich.
Last January, SPUC held another parliamentary event highlighting the dangers of the pills-by-post policy, also known as DIY abortion. MPs heard how the Worby case and others showed how easily abortion drugs can be acquired illegally.
In another high-profile case, Carla Foster was found guilty of aborting her child at 34 weeks (over the legal limit) after lying to an abortion provider over the phone about the true age of her unborn baby. Foster was sentenced to jail, though she was later suspended on appeal.
SPUC has called on MPs to end the “dangerous” pills-by-post policy immediately. The scheme, which was introduced during lockdown, allows women to obtain abortion pills through the post following a telephone consultation. The pills may be taken up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. MPs later voted to make the policy permanent.
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