Surely Independent Abortion Counselling Must Be Right
Duncan Barkes believes Nadine Dorries is right when it comes to abortion counselling.
29 Aug 2011, 09:51
Marie Stopes: Vested Interest?
He may well be right, but I do feel that no matter what your sex you can take a view on the amendments to a public health bill that have been proposed by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries and which will be voted on next week.
If passed these amendments would mean that abortion clinics would have to start offering women access to independent counselling ahead of carrying out the procedure. This counselling would have to take place on seperate premises and be run by an organisation that does not carry out abortions. Currently counselling is offered onsite at the clinic where terminations take place.
Figures show that private companies which carry out abortions were paid about £60 million (mainly by the NHS) and carried out around one hundred thousand procedures last year.
I am not interested in the religious or ethical debate about abortion as it is almost impossible to have a rational conversation about it as the debate is populated my extremists on either side of the argument. Neither want to hear a different view and very quickly the conversation descends into abuse. It is the same frustration you encounter when you try to have a decent discussion about the Middle East.
However, you do not have to hold a strong view on abortion to surely realise that a company carrying out terminations cannot give truly independent counselling to a woman considering an abortion. The incentives are too high and ultimately these clinics are businesses, not charities.
Surely the only thing that matters is the emotional and physical wellbeing of the woman concerned. I would have thought that this could only be properly achieved by offering information and support away from an environment where terminations are carried out.
Nadine Dorries has her critics. In the past I have questioned some of her blog postings but on this issue she is bang on the money. No doubt next week she will be attacked by various activists and commentators as the vote takes place on her proposals.
It takes a tough cookie to take on the anti-abortion lobby though in this case I would argue her amendments are not pro-life, but rather pro-sense. Nice one, Nad.
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One of the problems is that most women don't seem to know that the British Pregnancy Advisory Service do not provide independent advice and that they are a business which carries out huge numbers of abortions under contract to the NHS.
29/08/2011 11:36I asked my daughter (now in her late thirties) as to where she would have gone for advice if she had become pregnant in her twenties. She suggested that she would have gone to someone like the BPAS and was appalled when I pointed out the news item indicating that they were a major supplier of abortions, and that an abortion would have been their most likely advice.
If nothing else, I believe the BPAS should be made to change its name to one that more closely reflects its activities.
She's already being attacked daily on Liberal Conspiracy for her proposal...
01/09/2011 09:40