The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK’s largest abortion provider, and a group of other organisations recently launched a campaign for the repeal of all legal limitations on abortion in the UK. As a midwife, I was shocked to discover that one of those signatories was the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).
If what the BPAS campaign is calling for were ever implemented – the total removal of abortion from criminal law – it would mean that there would be no restriction on abortion whatsoever. This would put the UK in a small international club that includes China and Vietnam – where abortion is available, for any reason, up to birth. The RCM’s decision to support the campaign means that the body that represents me and my vocation advocates for a legal situation in which a baby can have its beating heart stopped – or be dismembered to allow its body parts to be passed – throughout the entire third trimester: 24 weeks and beyond.
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