Abortion

Health written question – answered at on 11 June 2012.

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Photo of Diane Abbott Diane Abbott Shadow Minister (Public Health)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health

(1) whether he has made an assessment of recent trends in the number of websites offering guidance on home abortions; what steps he is taking to investigate such websites; and whether he plans to take any further action against them;

(2) whether he has made an estimate of the number of deaths caused by home abortion attempts in each (a) socio-economic, (b) ethnic and (c) age group in the last five years; and how many police raids on properties involved in performing or offering online guidance on home abortions there have been in the last five years.

Photo of Anne Milton Anne Milton The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health

It is important for women in Great Britain to be able to access safe, legal abortion services; the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended) makes provision for this. Any abortion performed outside the terms of the Abortion Act 1967 or any intention of causing a woman to miscarry her pregnancy, is illegal.

There are strict legal controls on the retail sale, supply and advertisement of medicinal products in the United Kingdom, including those used for abortion. Any incidences of websites offering for sale to the public drugs that may cause an abortion should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who are responsible for the regulation of medicines on the UK market.

Treatment for an abortion must be carried out only in national health service hospitals or places approved by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health.

Data are not collected centrally on the number of raids carried out by the police in relation to websites offering advice and/or drugs for use in home abortions.

The Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) produce a report every three years about maternal deaths. The latest report (published 2011) includes the period 2006-08 during which there were no deaths due to the illegal terminations of pregnancy.

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