Author: Kevin Duffy

Research, data analysis, and commentary about abortion and declining birth rates.

Government under-reports abortion complications by a factor of 38x

In 2022, official reporting of abortion complications by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) shows just 300 cases across England and Wales. For the year 2022-23, official data from NHS England show 11,256 women diagnosed with abortion complications at an NHS hospital. The NHS data are known to the OHID, as evidenced in its November 2023 report which compares these two data sources, Abortion Notification System (ANS) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), and yet government officials refuse to make any change to official annual reporting. The NHS England data are easily accessible by any interested person and the above 11,256 can be retrieved online from NHS Digital in a matter of minutes. No prolonged data compilation, cleaning, and analysis; no need for a Freedom of Information request.

Why do women contact pregnancy support services?

A new study provides insight into how women describe the challenges they face when confronted with an unplanned pregnancy, how she describes her situation, circumstances, thoughts, and feelings – in her own words – before she has any contact with the pregnancy support team. From our many years of conversations with women experiencing post-abortion distress,... Continue Reading →

Complications reporting is complicated and incomplete

An effective medical abortion is defined by the MARE Guidelines[i] as a successful expulsion of an intrauterine pregnancy without the need for surgical intervention, clarified by the following sub-categories: Continuing pregnancy: treated with surgical management Continuing pregnancy: patient opted to continue or outcome is unknown Retained products treated with surgical management (an evacuation of retained... Continue Reading →

Catastrophic reporting by The Telegraph

On 09 May 2024, The Telegraph published an article responding to Ansell’s NC15, with the following headline: “Reducing abortion time limits would be ‘catastrophic’ for women.” [1] The article is misleading, or perhaps a better description would be that it is incorrect. The reporter, Donnelly, alleges that the Criminal Justice Bill amendment NC15, tabled by... Continue Reading →

Was RCOG wrong in its telemedicine guidance to DHSC?

In early 2020, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued guidance to support a no-test protocol that was a prerequisite to the government’s approval for telemedicine abortion and pills-by-post. A critical element of this was its advice “that routine pre-abortion ultrasound scanning is unnecessary.” [1] In its published guidance, at section 2.1.1: ‘Gestation assessment’,... Continue Reading →

RCOG guidance for later abortions

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has an e-learning module for abortion providers called ‘Making abortion safe’. In the related ‘Medical abortion from 12 weeks of pregnancy: Summary sheet’, it lays out some of the risks that providers need to be aware of for these later-gestation abortions, including a 1-in-7 risk of needing further... Continue Reading →

BPAS case studies undermine its own campaign

In its campaign to decriminalise abortion, BPAS is using the stories of women who have been prosecuted or investigated to tug at our heartstrings and using emotive language to bring us and our MPs onside with their support for the Criminal Justice Bill abortion decriminalisation amendments tabled by Dame Diana Johnson (NC1) and Stella Creasy... Continue Reading →

MSI-RC anonymous donor funds

In a recent article, Inkstick joined with MSI Reproductive Choices (MSI-RC) to criticise US Christian groups for providing funds to pro-life organisations operating across Africa.[i] They wanted to ring the alarm bells that some rich philanthropists were giving away their own money to support causes that align to their own personally held ideologies. Considering the... Continue Reading →

MORE THAN 10,000 women who took a DIY abortion pill at home provided by the NHS in 2020 ended up needing hospital treatment to deal with the side effects, a new study has revealed. The evidence-based on 85 freedom of information requests to NHS trusts revealed that more than 1 in 17 women, around 20... Continue Reading →

Daily Express

Prosecutions for illegal abortion

Between 2012 and 2022, four women in England were convicted for committing an illegal abortion. In 2023, Carla Foster was jailed and then had her sentence halved and suspended. In December 2022, the case against a woman in Oxford was dropped and the case against Bethany Cox was dropped in January 2024. There are two... Continue Reading →

Johnson’s Six represent 0.00015%

Those campaigning for Dame Diana Johnson’s amendment NC1, are cynically using the stories of six vulnerable women who have been brought to court, charged with having committed their own illegal abortion. The stories are tragic and we can all acknowledge the harm suffered by these women – the last thing they need now, is to... Continue Reading →

Should DIY abortion be permitted after 10 weeks?

Dame Diana Johnson’s proposed amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, NC1,[i] seeks to remove women from criminal prosecution if they are found to have self-managed their own abortion. In England and Wales, it is currently legal for a woman to do so through medical abortion until 9-weeks-6-days of pregnancy have elapsed. The equivalent limit is... Continue Reading →

Some are men

Abortion campaigners have raised concern about the increasing number of women facing police investigation for illegal abortions. In March, during the Report Stage for the Criminal Justice Bill, it is expected that MPs will debate Dame Diana Johnson’s amendment, NC1, which calls for women to be removed from the criminal law related to abortion, thus... Continue Reading →

The Home Office data simply do not support Dr Lord’s claim of an ‘unprecedented’ increase in police investigations and prosecutions when women are suspected of performing their own illegal abortion.

SPUC

Abortion – criminal investigations

In an interview with the BBC, Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director at MSI Reproductive Choices, raised concerns about an ‘unprecedented’ number of women being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending their pregnancy. He said that he knows of up to 60 criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero... Continue Reading →

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