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Abortion provider BPAS lobbies to vastly increase number of late-term abortion services in Scotland

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”.

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

This leaves a real contradiction in British law. In one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.