The UK’s largest abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), is lobbying the Scottish Government to vastly increase the number of late-term abortion services in Scotland.

The Scotsman reports that eight health boards in Scotland do not carry out the abortions beyond 18 weeks, four have a gestational time limit of 20 weeks and NHS Fife has a limit of 15 weeks and five days.

A newspaper investigation in Scotland has found that women are travelling to England for late-term abortions because the service is not available in Scotland.

Rachael Clarke, chief of staff at BPAS, said that they are lobbying the Scottish Government to provide taxpayer funding for abortion services that would provide abortion up to 24 weeks. 

Late-term abortion and feticide

What constitutes a “late-term” abortion varies, but in general, any abortion after 16 weeks is considered late term. Abortions after 22 weeks in the UK usually involve a procedure called “feticide” in which the life of the unborn baby is ended via a lethal injection of potassium chloride through his mother’s abdomen into his heart.

The administration of potassium chloride in executions in the USA is considered so painful that it is necessary to first administer an anaesthetic before its use. There is, however, no such obligation to use painkillers in late-term selective-reduction procedures in the United Kingdom, despite the mounting evidence that the unborn baby is capable of experiencing pain and distress.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “Every abortion is a great tragedy, but late-term abortions are especially barbaric. The real scandal here is that late-term abortions are performed in England and that some people want them to be performed in Scotland too. The Scottish Government should hold strong and not give in to lobbying from the UK’s largest abortion provider who are responsible for the ending of tens of thousands of lives each year”.