Philobiblon

It seems as a cost-cutting measure, some NHS trusts are making women wait up to seven weeks for an abortion.

Which means, of course, they’ll often go beyond the point where it can be carried out by hormone treatment, and will require surgical intervention, which is, no doubt, more costly…. great decision by the administrators, and a lot of unnecessary strain on the patients.

The Department of Health wants 70% of all terminations to be carried out under 10 weeks gestation. According to its latest figures – from 2005 – the majority of abortions did take place within this time limit.
But the data revealed large regional discrepancies, with the worst performing PCTs carrying out only just over a third of terminations within 10 weeks.

Definitely not an area where you want a postcode lottery.

It is sad that I have to post this on Blog for Choice day – so I should add that we should also celebrate that most women, most of the time in England, Scotland and Wales DO have reasonable access to abortion. (Northern Ireland is another story.)

What we have to do is make sure that access improves – by removing the two-doctor rule. It should, under normal circumstances, be the decision of a woman alone, helped by a nurse, with doctors involved only when medically necessary.