A pro-life group in the UK has decried a report from a London-based medical association calling for women to be able to access abortion pills without meeting in-person with a doctor. On December 2, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released a report entitled “Better For Women.” The report said that 60% of women cannot get an abortion locally. It recommended a nationwide expansion of abortion drug accessibility through the use of telemedicine.
The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children (SPUC) lamented the recommendation, arguing that it underestimates the potential risks of abortion drugs. “The RCOG is playing fast and loose with women’s health. Their approach is propaganda to deceive women into thinking that abortion pills are safe and simple. They are neither,” said Antonia Tully, SPUC Campaigns Director.
A medical abortion, sometimes called a chemical abortion, is a two-step process that involves the ingestion of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The first drug, mifepristone, effectively starves the unborn baby by blocking the effects of the progesterone hormone, inducing a miscarriage. The second drug, misoprostol, is taken up to two days later and induces labor.
Current protocol requires women in the UK to meet a doctor face-to-face before a medical abortion. Mifepristone must be administered at the physician’s office, while misoprostol can be taken later at home. Under the RCOG’s recommendation, however, women would be able to have a video chat or phone call with a doctor and then pick up both drugs from their local pharmacy to be taken at home, without seeing a doctor in person at any point in the process.
The report also called for further decriminalization of abortion throughout the UK, up to 24 weeks. “In 2019 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended greater use of online and telephone consultations to streamline the provision of abortion care,” said RCOG president Lesley Regan. CNA
