Following today’s launch of a consultation in Scotland on whether dangerous DIY abortions should be made permanent, SPUC’s Alithea Williams said: “Our supporters up and down Scotland will certainly be making their voices heard."

The so-called emergency measure allowing women to self-administer medical (chemical) abortions at home, without meeting with a medical professional in person, was introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government is “seeking views” on whether or not to make home abortions permanent. The consultation will last between 30 September and 5 January 2021.

Ms Williams said: “Whether or not an unborn baby should be killed is not something that should ever be debated in consultations. However, we welcome the opportunity to highlight the particular horrors of the home abortion regime, and to argue that women and babies deserve better.”

The “travesty” of DIY home abortion

A leaked NHS email from a Regional Chief Midwife at NHS England and NHS Improvement revealed that the “pills in the post” scheme had resulted in ruptured ectopic pregnancies, “major resuscitations for major haemorrhage” and “the delivery of infants up to 30 weeks gestation”.

Ms Williams commented:

“Home abortion provision is a travesty that should never have been introduced. Allowing women to take powerful drugs at home, alone, with no medical supervision shows a complete lack of care and respect for women, as well as further devaluing the value of human life in the womb.

“As we feared from the beginning, it has proved impossible to regulate. In recent months, we have had, in England, babies who have died after their mothers took the pills when months past the legal and medical limit, and abortion providers have been found to be sending out the pills without even basic checks.”

SPUC will be producing a briefing to help people in Scotland to respond to the consultation