News,

Almost a third of secondary schools in England have sexual health clinics. The government wants all schools either to set up such clinics or to refer pupils to external facilities. Services include provision of morning-after pills and some secondary pupils are as young as 11. A survey of 16 such clinics found that only a quarter of students who sought help were advised not to have sex. American research suggests there is little good evidence that clinics reduce teenage pregnancy. The Family Education Trust said the facilities encouraged under-age sex. [Mail, 5 January] In Oxfordshire nearly 1,100 doses of morning-after pills have been supplied through schools in the past six years. The county's health service claimed that students who requested advice were encouraged to consult an adult such as a parent. [Sunday Telegraph, 4 January] The clinics' services are reportedly confidential, including for under-age children.

Almost 100 legal abortions were performed in Northern Ireland last year. The terminations were reportedly performed because the mother's life was in danger. More than 1,300 women from the province had abortions in England and Wales where the law is more liberal, and others will have gone to Scotland and outside the UK. [Belfast Telegraph, 5 January]

A woman in Britain says that she has been scarred and tortured by her decision to abort her son nine years ago, and that he still haunts her thoughts. Ms Victoria Lambert terminated the pregnancy at 13 weeks' gestation because the baby had Patau's syndrome, also known as trisomy 13. People with the syndrome, which can include a heart defect, may survive to young adulthood. Ms Lambert complains that admitting to unease about abortion is seen by some as a betrayal of women's solidarity. She writes: "[Abortion] felt then and it feels now like murder," though she adds that she is not against abortion. In retrospect, she writes that she would have cared for her son. Prenatal testing was too easy and meant that decisions about abortion were taken lightly. [Mail, 3 January] John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, writes: "I hope and pray that Victoria Lambert's story will help other women who may be under pressure to abort their child - whether that child has a disability or not. And I pray, above all, that she will find peace and learn to forgive herself." [SPUC director, 5 January]

Women in America are reportedly procuring abortions by taking misoprostol, a prescription drug used for treating ulcers. Our source mentions a survey by Planned Parenthood which reportedly discovered that Hispanic women were resorting to various means of inducing miscarriage. Misoprostol does not always cause abortion and it can have grave side-effects for women. Text on the packaging of one brand warns that it can be abortifacient. [New York Times, 4 January] The results of some research into illegal abortion is used to lobby for even more easily available terminations.

Nurses in Britain are being consulted on organ donation. The Royal College of Nursing's survey includes the issue of presuming donors' consent. [Royal College of Nursing, 5 January]

Freezing embryos improves the IVF success rate, according to research by a British treatment centre. The Oxford Fertility Unit claims the practice cuts the required number of hormonal treatments. Freezing surplus embryos from one course of treatment is reportedly cheaper than a new IVF cycle. [Independent, 3 January]

To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2018