Pro-life group disturbed by government discussions on abortion counselling London, : A leading pro-life group has said that it is disturbed by a report that the Department of Health is in discussions with Labour MP Frank Field about how to change the law on counselling for women considering abortion.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the UK's largest pro-life lobbying group, was responding an exclusive report in yesterday's Liverpool Daily Post in which Mr Field revealed that Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, has invited Mr Field to talk to departmental officials about changing the law through regulations, rather than via amendments to primary legislation.

Mr Field and Nadine Dorries MP have tabled amendments to the government's Health and Social Care Bill. Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, commented: "We are extremely disturbed at this news.  We said when Mr Field and Mrs Dorries first announced their initiative that their efforts to try to stop women being exploited by pro-abortion counsellors could be twisted to have the opposite effect by Department of Health regulations. This is what we suspect is happening here. The high abortion rate in this country is driven by senior officials in the Department of Health who are strongly committed to abortion on demand - contrary to the 1967 Abortion Act. The Department of Health has no target for reducing abortions and rejects strategies that could help to drive down the rate. On the contrary the teenage pregnancy strategy, which was supposed to halve under-18 births by 2010, is being continued by officials. The strategy promotes abortion, and the number of abortions among under-18s in the past 10 years has grown significantly", concluded Mr Tully.

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, can be contacted on (0)7939 178719 or (020) 7820 3127. SPUC http://www.spuc.org.uk