The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has called for women to obtain abortion drugs over Skype or Facetime instead of meeting with their doctor, and then perform their own DIY abortion at home. SPUC has slammed the proposals as "playing fast and loose with women’s health."

SPUC Campaigns Director Antonia Tully said: "The RCOG is playing fast and loose with women’s health. Their approach is propaganda to deceive women into thinking that abortion pills are safe and simple. They are neither. They are powerful drugs designed to kill an unborn baby. And without face to face contact with medical staff, this policy will drive vulnerable women, often coerced into abortion by abusive men, even further under the radar."

Currently, women can be sent home with the second abortion drug, misoprostol, which contravenes the 1967 Abortion Act. The RCOG’s new report, "Better for women", calls for all abortion drugs to be consumed at home with no medical care or supervision.

It also calls for doctors to online chat with women, instead of ever meeting them face to face.

Abortion pills- not safe or simple

Mrs Tully continued: "One study found that taking the second abortion pill at home can lead to an increase in adverse effects on women, including incomplete abortion, bleeding requiring medical attention and infection."

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration updated their guidance to reveal that 24 American women died following the consumption of abortion drugs. Death was caused by a range of complications induced by the abortion drugs including liver failure, sepsis, toxic shock syndrome and haemorrhaging.

The report stated that between 2000-2012, there were 2,740 cases of reported complications associated with the abortion drugs. The past five years witnessed an average of 289 complications annually which included 273 hospitalisations, 103 infections and 182 cases of blood loss resulting in urgent transfusions.

Mrs Tully added: "Studies show the harmful physical consequences of abortion pills. Our concern is that these will be increased when women are given these pills to take away from a medical setting."  SPUC has produced an information booklet "Abortion pills - Not safe or simple" which looks at the impact of abortion pills on women’s health.