A Peer has launched a Bill proposing a law change that requires the Government to report on the full extent of complications arising from abortion, including complications from abortions where parts of the unborn baby are left in the mother’s womb.
Lord Moylan’s Complications from Abortions (Annual Report) Bill was introduced to the House of Lords after it was drawn in fourteenth place in the House of Lords’ Private Members’ Bill ballot, and received its First Reading on Tuesday 9 June.
The Bill would require the Secretary of State to publish an annual report on complications from abortions in England. The stated purpose of the legislation is to inform policy and safe practice regarding the termination of pregnancy.
The Bill states that such an annual report must include data as recorded by both the Abortion Notification System and Hospital Episode Statistics.
It also states that such an annual report must include the complication rate for the termination of pregnancy; the complication rate by the age of the woman; the complication rate by method of abortion and gestation; the complication rate by complication type, including complications arising from retained products of conception; and any other information the Secretary of State sees fit to include.
The date for the Bill’s Second Reading in the House of Lords has yet to be announced.
How House of Lords Private Members’ Bills work
At the beginning of each session of Parliament, two days after the State Opening of Parliament, a ballot is held to allocate the order in which the first 25 Private Members’ Bills will be introduced in the House of Lords. Usually, a large number of Peers enter the ballot, providing a short and long title of their bill for the Legislation Office. The order of the ballot determines the order in which the bills receive their First Reading in the House.
Private Members’ Bills in the Lords do not generally get enough time allocated to progress through all stages in the House of Lords, but if they do, they can then be supported by an MP and continue in the Commons.
In the Commons, Lords Private Members’ Bills do not have priority over bills introduced in the Commons, so unless the Government chooses to give them time, they rarely become law.
Peers usually use Private Members’ Bills as an opportunity to raise the profile of an important issue by having it debated in the Lords, and the campaigning and media opportunities that come with that can help them further raise the profile of that issue.
Following the profile-raising of the issue and the momentum for reform that is generated through introducing the bill in the House of Lords, a law change may then be introduced at a later date through another mechanism, such as a Private Members’ Bill in the Commons or an amendment to a Government Bill.
We have provided background information on the current gaps in abortion complication reporting and the strong case for making major changes to reporting, along with information on babies being born alive after abortions.
Government review shows abortion complication rates likely much higher than being reported by abortion providers
A Government review published in November 2023 revealed that abortion complication rates are likely much higher than has been previously reported in the annual abortion statistics, which are based on reporting from abortion providers.
The review, undertaken by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), analysed Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for England from the years 2017 to 2021. They compared the complication rate derived from this analysis to the currently reported complication rate derived from the Abortion Notification System (ANS) based on data provided by abortion providers, which are reported in the annual abortion statistics.
The review found the ANS-derived data shows an average complication rate over the 5 years from 2017-2021 of 1.52 per 1,000 abortions, whereas their analysis of HES data over the same period showed a complication rate of 4.06, over 2.6 times higher than the ANS data that is reported in the annual abortion statistics.
When their HES data analysis also included incomplete abortions, the complication rate over the same period was 18.16, which is over 11.9 times higher than the ANS-derived complication rate that does not include incomplete abortions.
The difference in reported complication rate was much higher for women under 20 than for the general population. For women under 20, the HES-derived complication rate was 4.43 times higher than the ANS-derived complication rate, compared to 2.67 times higher for the general population. When the HES data analysis also included incomplete abortion, for under-20s the HES-derived complication rate was 17.43 times higher than the ANS-derived complication rate, compared to 11.95 times for the general population.
The review also identified that abortion providers were not recording complications that happened after discharge or after the form that they were recorded on was sent to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The OHID noted that there was “no evidence” when the review was undertaken in 2022 that abortion providers were informing the (DHSC) to ensure the data was updated when a woman informed the abortion provider about a complication that occurred after the form had been sent.
The review also noted that complications may be less likely to be recorded for terminations where either both or one of the abortion medications is administered at home, because it is unlikely that the person filling in the HSA4 form will know if the woman experienced a complication following an abortion.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “This Bill is a much-needed step forward in improving transparency around abortion complications. Abortion complication rates are almost certainly higher than has previously been reported in official statistics, as a Government review revealed. This Bill proposes a common-sense change to policy that MPs and Peers, regardless of where they stand on the issue of abortion, should support”.
“The Government needs to urgently introduce measures to ensure that abortion complications data is accurately collected and reliably reported on”.
