Independent Consultant. Public health research, data analysis, and commentary on the global provision of sexual and reproductive health and rights; telemedicine and self-managed medical abortion; ethics, policy and payment. Perspective matters.
Marie Stopes Australia (MSA) says that more than 5% of the medical abortions it provides, fail to complete. Meaning that 1-in-20 women will have fragments of the baby and/or placenta remaining in their womb after taking both sets of the tablets, mifepristone and misoprostol. These women will need to seek further treatment to prevent ongoing... Continue Reading →
The Scottish Government received 5,537 responses to its consultation asking whether its temporary approval for abortion at home by telemedicine should be made permanent or if it would be better to revert to the prior, clinic-based arrangements that were in place before the end of March 2020. Respondents were asked to comment on how this temporary approval... Continue Reading →
On 25 May 2021, Public Health Scotland (PHS) released its official abortion statistics for the year ending December 2020. You may have already read that in 2020 there were a total of 13,815 abortions, the highest annual total since 2008, and that 36% of these were repeat abortions, which continues an increasing trend year-on-year. In this short... Continue Reading →
A freedom of information request to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board showed the cost of the pills-by-post service provided by BPAS in 2020 was £76.97 for the consultation, and £344.80 for the abortion treatment, a total of £421.77.
On 23 March 2021, I presented at an online briefing hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group for MPs from across the UK, along with politicians from the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd. This was an opportunity to share some of the findings from our recent freedom of information investigation. Led by Co-Chair of the... Continue Reading →
If you are going to use reduced waiting times to substantiate your preference for telemedicine abortion, then you need to make sure that you are comparing like-for-like. It is wrong to compare the elapsed time from first contact to in-clinic dispensing, with the time from first contact to posting the abortion pills; posting is not... Continue Reading →
In this briefing we bring you three new sets of data about early medical abortion services being provided across England and Wales. Our analysis will help to inform those responding to government consultations, which ask for your views on whether or not the temporary measure introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing women and girls to... Continue Reading →
Click on this image to download a copy of our investigation report.
This is my response to an article in the New Statesman on December 15th, 2020. My main concern is the assertion that abortion has become safer since the introduction of telemedicine in April. The article states that there has been just one complication in more than 23,000 abortions at home, and that is clearly wrong,... Continue Reading →
Since government approval was granted for telemedicine abortion at home, less than half of all eligible women have chosen, or were offered, the option of pills by post. There are more women still visiting abortion clinics than those using telemedicine. On March 30th, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 lockdown and the ensuing difficulties facing... Continue Reading →
