Research, data analysis, and commentary on abortion and declining birth rates.
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 →
In its recently published report into abortion statistics for 2022 (England and Wales), the UK Government presented misleading and incomplete data about the numbers of complications arising from medical abortions; and worse still, they knew they were doing so.[i] In fairness to the reporting team at the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, they do... Continue Reading →
A new peer-reviewed article highlights major flaws in the data used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove medical safeguards and in-person administering of abortion drugs. These flaws illustrate the ongoing problem of lack of quality abortion reporting data in the U.S. as well as in the United Kingdom. In April 2021,... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Just before the Easter recess, Stella Creasy MP tabled a new abortion decriminalisation amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, NC40. This was not available to the public until Friday evening, 12 April,[1] but that did not stop Creasy stirring up noisy discussions on social media by writing about parts of it in an opinion piece... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
The discovery of a baby’s body and the arrest of the parents led to a local authority placing the mother’s other children under interim care orders. Supporters of Dame Diana Johnson’s amendment for abortion decriminalisation, NC1, are using this as a campaigning headline: “Children of a British woman suspected of illegal abortion removed from her... 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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.
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 →
Dr Lord, medical director at MSI Reproductive Choices, told the BBC that he knows of up to 60 women facing criminal inquiries for suspected abortion crime in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before. However, Home Office data show only a small uptick in 2022/23, compared to the eight years before that;... Continue Reading →
We can now say with more certainty that in 2022, the total abortions in England and Wales will have been about 250,000, a substantial year-on-year increase of 17%, compared with an annual average increase of less than 3% over the last 53 years. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has only published data... Continue Reading →
Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director at MSI Reproductive Choices, reports to The Guardian that he is aware of up to 30 “deeply traumatic” cases where women have been investigated by the police, after being accused of managing their own illegal abortion, with some suffering “life-changing harm”. For me, there is little doubt that these heart-rending... Continue Reading →
