Skip to main content
Logo icon

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
  • Meet your MP
  • Government Support - Cost of Living
  • In Parliament
  • Campaign Responses
  • Contact
Logo icon

Abortion At Home

  • Tweet

Thank you for contacting me about proposals to make permanent the measures enacted during the pandemic to allow so-called at-home or telemedical abortions.

I opposed the introduction of the temporary measures allowing 'at home' or 'DIY' abortions and remain unpersuaded that this is a course of action which should be pursued during the present crisis, let alone permanently and will support all viable efforts to end this practice. Consequently, I signed EDM 2.

I am clear that close attention needs to be paid to the provision of support and counselling for women who feel they need to seek abortions.

A consultation has recently been held on the home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation.  The Government is currently reviewing the evidence received and will publish a response in due course.  You can find more information on that here:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-use-of-both-pills-for-… 

Reports of post-ten week/problems with home abortions: I have been distressed to read news reports of cases where abortions had been sought and enacted after the ten week legal limit for taking the medicines at home, and have caused further illness and even death. I will continue to support all efforts to ensure safety is the paramount consideration in considering any amendments to regulations, however temporary. 

Enough evidence exists for serious concern over a number of issues:

Complications: incidents of haemorrhage, sepsis and retention of products of conception following use of abortion have emerged in response to FoI requests. It would appear that DHSC data seriously underreports such incidents. Moreover, remote consultations make the detection of complications less likely and are less reliable channels for determining each woman's state of mind and the degree to which she is choosing her course of action independently.

Inadequate safeguards: there are very serious concerns over whether abortion providers are taking enough care over their duty to carry out basic checks before sending out abortion pills. In particular, there is doubt over whether they are always doing enough to verify women's identities, ages and gestational dates. I understand that errors arising from inadequate checks can contribute to medical complications and to women taking the pills after the ten-week limit has expired.  

Coercion: a danger inherent in the procedures involved in remote consultations and prescriptions is that abusers and those who seek to coerce women into abortions they do not want to have will be present but undetected throughout and that there is no viable safeguard against such abuse. The Government, in the person of Lord Bethell, made this point very effectively: 

Do we really want to ... remove the only opportunity many women have, often at a most vulnerable stage, to speak confidentially and one-to-one with a doctor about their concerns on abortion and about what the alternatives might be? The bottom line is that, if there is an abusive relationship and no legal requirement for a doctor’s involvement, it is far more likely that a vulnerable woman could be pressured into having an abortion by an abusive partner. 

I will continue to monitor this issue and the debate surrounding it.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Craig Whittaker MP

December 2021

 

Campaign Responses

  • Archived Campaign Responses
  • Covid-19: Extending Support Schemes
  • Covid-19: Provision of Tests
  • Covid-19: Vaccinating Children
  • Covid-19: Vaccines and Developing Countries
  • Abortion At Home
  • Abortion Time Limit: Foetal Viability
  • Aid Spending
  • Animal Research
  • Animal Sentience: Update January 2022
  • Animal Welfare
  • Assisted Suicide
  • Asylum Seekers: Employment
  • Badgers and Bovine TB
  • Beer and Alcohol Duty (incudes Draught Beer)
  • Business, Human Rights and Environment: June 2022
  • Caged Farm Animals
  • Cambo & Oil Fields
  • CatchUpWithCancer
  • Cats & Kittens
  • Channel 4 Privatisation
  • Clean Air
  • Clean Heat: Heat Pumps
  • Clean Heat: Energy Efficiency
  • Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill
  • Climate Issues (plus COP 26)
  • Commercial Sexual Exploitation
  • Conversion Therapy
  • COP26: Global Action
  • Cost of Living
  • Council Workers' and Public Sector Pay
  • Cut Carbon Not Forests: Update
  • Cycling and Walking: Update
  • Dangerous Dogs Act
  • Debt and DROs
  • Decarbonisation and Economic Strategy Bill
  • Dementia Diagnosis
  • Dentistry
  • Deporting Foreign Criminals: June 2022
  • Disability Benefits Assessments: EDM 19
  • Domestic Abuse Bill
  • Domestic Abuse: Migrants
  • Domestic Homicide
  • Domestic Abuse: Universal Credit
  • Early Years Funding
  • Elections Act and the Electoral Commission
  • End Child Food Poverty
  • Endometriosis and PCOS
  • Energy Costs and the Windfall Tax
  • Environmental Land Management
  • E-scooters (Guide Dogs)
  • Equal Pay
  • EU/EEA Settled Status
  • Face Coverings
  • Fire & Rehire
  • Fix Bad Housing
  • Flexible Working
  • Foie Gras and Fur
  • Food Waste
  • Fuel Duty and Prices
  • Gamebird Battery Cages
  • Gambling Review
  • Gender Recognition Act: June 2022
  • Global Malnutrition
  • Global Partnership for Education
  • GP Issues
  • Guards’ Bearskins: Updated June 2022
  • Hamas
  • Health & Care Bill (including Workforce)
  • Heart and Circulatory Diseases
  • Hedgehogs
  • Hedgerows
  • Holiday Tax Lets
  • HS2
  • Human Rights Act
  • Human Rights Defenders
  • Humanist Marriages
  • Hunting Act
  • Immigration and Refugees
  • Israel is not an Apartheid State
  • Israel: Stop BDS
  • Israel: UK Arms and Right to Self-defence
  • Ivory Act: Update
  • Jagtar Singh Johal
  • Legal Aid: Asylum and Immigration Cases
  • Levelling-up: Transport
  • Live Animal Exports
  • Local Electricity Bill
  • Medical Cannabis
  • Mental Health Research
  • Migrant Channel Crossings
  • Misogyny
  • MP's & Second Jobs
  • Multi-sensory Impairment: Education
  • National Insurance Increase (NHS & Social Care)
  • Nationality and Borders Bill: Asylum-seekers
  • NHS Funding
  • NHS Pay: Consultants, Doctors and Dentists
  • NHS Pay and Recruitment
  • Night Time Industries
  • Northern Ireland Protocol
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Ocean Protection
  • Off-payroll Working (IR35)
  • Older People: Health and Care
  • Palestinian Human Rights Defenders
  • 'Partygate': Fixed Penalty Notices
  • Peat
  • Pension Credit
  • Pensioner Poverty
  • Persecution of Christians: Updated May 2022
  • Planning Bill
  • Plastic Waste
  • Police Corruption & Accountability
  • Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: February 2022
  • Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Bill
  • Proportional Property Tax
  • Public Sector Pay (Civil Service)
  • Public Sexual Harassment: Crime not Compliment (Jan 22)
  • Rail Strikes
  • Rape and the Criminal Justice System
  • Reception Baseline Assessment (Primary Schools)
  • Renters Reform Bill: Updated
  • Retail Workers: Protection at Work
  • Royal Corruption
  • Rwanda Partnership: Tackling Illegal Immigration and People Smugglers
  • School Breakfast Bill
  • Sentencing (Dangerous Driving)
  • Sewage Discharges
  • Small Brewers Relief
  • Snares
  • Social Care Charging Reforms
  • Social Housing
  • Speed Limits
  • Stamp Duty Land Tax
  • Syria
  • Teachers' Pay
  • Trade Deals: Farming and Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: NHS - New Clause 17 and Lords 11
  • Trade Deals: Parliamentary Scrutiny
  • Trains and Planes
  • Triple Lock (State Pension)
  • Trophy Hunting Update
  • Trespass (Right to Roam)
  • Ukraine
  • Ukraine: Refugees
  • UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights
  • Unaccompanied Child Refugees
  • Universal Credit
  • Vagrancy Act and the PCSC Bill (Lords Amendment)
  • Vaping and E-Cigarettes
  • VAT on Electric Vehicle Charging in Public Places
  • Violence against Women and Girls
  • Visa-free Work Permits for Touring Artists
  • Voting Systems
  • Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (UK Aid)
  • Wayne Couzens Inquiry
  • Young People's Mental Health
  • Youth Homelessness: Chance to Move On

Craig Whittaker MP for Calder Valley

Footer

  • About RSS
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • About Craig
  • Campaign Responses
  • In Parliament
This website is funded by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) for the purpose of assisting Craig Whittaker MP in the performance of their Parliamentary duties.
Copyright 2022 Craig Whittaker MP for Calder Valley. All rights reserved.
Powered by Bluetree