British Doctors Send Women to Spain for Late Abortions

By Liz Townsend

Doctors working with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the country's largest abortion provider, refer women seeking abortions over the legal limit of 24 weeks to a clinic in Spain, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The British Department of Health has launched an investigation into BPAS's late-abortion referrals. "We are still investigating the matter of BPAS referring women overseas for late abortions," a spokeswoman told the Mercury. "We are hoping a report will be made to [Health Secretary] John Reid before Christmas."

BPAS, which is funded by the National Health Service, provides more than 80% of abortions in Britain between 20-23 weeks gestation, the Press Association reported. British law bans abortion after 24 weeks except for fetal disability or danger to the mother.

If women consult BPAS for a late abortion, the Telegraph found that they are referred to Clinica Ginemedex in Barcelona, Spain, as a matter of BPAS "policy." "They do over 24 weeks in Barcelona," the Telegraph reporter was told by a BPAS adviser. "I know that we refer people over our usual term of 23 weeks to them. I know they do over 24 weeks."

However, under Spanish law, abortions are illegal over 22 weeks except for medical danger to mother or child. When asked by the Telegraph how the clinic gets around Spanish law, a Clinica Ginemedex staff member named Jimena said, "If you have a normal pregnancy but still you want to do it, what we do is to put on the paper that there was a gynaecological emergency, and that is [covered] under the law."

Instead of apologizing for their actions, BPAS officials went on the offensive, calling for the government to change the laws limiting late abortion. "If women are to plan their families they need access to abortion as a back-up to contraception," BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi told the Press Association. "Abortion is safe, it's legal, and it's our job to make it acceptable and easy for women."

Pro-lifers were outraged at BPAS's call to change the laws it has allegedly broken on a regular basis. "For BPAS to suggest that late abortion should be more readily available is rather like someone accused of theft saying that shoplifting should be made easier," said Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

"For most people (and in the eyes of the law) abortion remains a serious moral question - - but not for BPAS," Tully said. "In law, abortions are supposed to be done only for medical reasons: BPAS has been flouting the law for many years."

To further investigate BPAS's late abortion practices, reporters from two newspapers contacted different abortionists posing as the friend and father of women more than 24 weeks pregnant who wanted abortions for what they specifically stated were "social reasons."

Dr. Saroj Adlakha of Birmingham told a Telegraph reporter that the abortion could not be performed in Britain, but it could be done at Clinica Ginemedex. Adlakha even confided that she personally brought an 18-year-old to the clinic for an abortion at 31-1/2 weeks, at the recommendation of BPAS counselors.

"They do an injection into the stomach and the injection goes into the foetus straight away and the baby is killed and they put you into labour and it is just like when someone is having a still birth," Adlakha told the Telegraph reporter. "And it is quite properly done and proper medication and everything."

Adlakha confirmed earlier reports that the clinic falsifies the paperwork to conform with Spanish law. "They write down, and they tell you beforehand [that they will do this], that she is 22 weeks' pregnant and there is a physical abnormality," Adlakha said, according to the Telegraph.

Adlakha attempted to justify her actions and the BPAS recommendations by claiming that abortion is better for women than adoption.

"The reason is . . . I don't want to put you off, but it's because you are killing a baby," Adlakha told the Telegraph reporter. "Rather than killing the baby after, you are killing it inside. But one thing I say to you is I would not give my child to someone I don't know, for adoption.

"You don't know with whom it's going, what kind of life it's going [to have]. Rather than ruining one life [with abortion] you are ruining two lives. Your daughter's life and the baby's life."

In another investigation, a Sunday Mercury reporter called the BPAS office in Solihull and said her friend wanted an abortion at 24 weeks. The reporter was given the phone number of Clinica Ginemedex and was "offered an appointment within 24 hours - - if she could pay up to pounds 3,150 in cash to have the abortion," according to the Mercury.

Pro-lifers in Britain were shocked by the actions of BPAS and doctors like Adlakha. "These laws are in place for a reason," said Joanna Jepson, who is leading a campaign against abortions performed because a child is diagnosed with such anomalies as a cleft palate. She told the Mercury, "BPAS should not be helping women to get around them. They have no respect for human life."