Tim Worstall

A new generation of doctors will be put off from becoming involved in abortion services by high-profile protest campaigns and a political “witch-hunt”, providers fear. The current climate is already causing anxiety among doctors who are concerned that their practice will be called into question, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) said, as activists behind [...]

[Read more →]

Andrew Lansley is playing politics with abortion provision Err, yes. The man’s an elected politician and abortion is part of his ministerial brief. Wat do you expect him to do with the subject other than play politics with it? Hockey?

[Read more →]

No doubt it’s a serious matter that some abortion clinics are said to be flouting the law and getting consent forms pre-signed by doctors. Well, technically anyway. It’s the law that’s wrong, of course. It pretends there has to be some sort of medical reason why a woman would want an abortion, a medical reason [...]

[Read more →]

BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi said she was appalled that the media had been told about the latest inspections before the clinics. She said: “Abortion doctors provide an important service to women who are often in difficult circumstances. “Their work is already intensely scrutinised, with clinics regularly inspected by the Care Quality Commission. “Mr Lansley [...]

[Read more →]

“I completely understand the law doesn’t require the doctor to have met the woman concerned, but to pre-sign certificates when you don’t even know which woman it relates to and there hasn’t been an assessment, is completely contrary to the spirit and letter of the law.” He added that action would be taken within days. [...]

[Read more →]

I will give her this: her writing has improved immensely. However, perhaps not her logic: The answer goes back to the fundamental disagreement between pro- and anti-choicers on what men back in the day called “the Woman Question”: that is, “What are women for?” Sadly, as recently as 2012, conservative commentator James Poulos insisted on [...]

[Read more →]

It’s a very good argument too. Judy Ann Miracle I will admit to never having really understood the argument that pregnancy from rape is an all out proof that abortion is at times not just allowable but the righteous and just thing to do. For whatever your views on short skirts and getting pissed as [...]

[Read more →]

The investigation by the Daily Telegraph of several private clinics across the country offering sex-selection terminations because the gender of the unborn baby is unwanted has briefly united campaigners on both sides of the normally highly polarised abortion debate. They have rightly spoken as one in soundly condemning the practice. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, [...]

[Read more →]

Dr Argent also disclosed that he believed that some colleagues had arranged terminations relating to the sex of the foetus and they felt it was reasonable to do so. “I’ve had a consultant colleague in the North who expressed a view — that consultant was from an ethnic minority … He didn’t think it was [...]

[Read more →]

With this in mind, it is clear that a very large number, and quite possibly the vast majority, of abortions carried out in this country are against the spirit, if not quite the word, of the law, and that practically all the doctors in this country who sign abortion forms are every bit as guilty [...]

[Read more →]

Doctors at British clinics have been secretly filmed agreeing to terminate foetuses purely because they are either male or female. Clinicians admitted they were prepared to falsify paperwork to arrange the abortions even though it is illegal to conduct such “sex-selection” procedures. Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said: “I’m extremely concerned to hear about these [...]

[Read more →]

This really does amuse me: America’s largest breast cancer advocacy group has been forced to make a self-abasing retraction of its plan to cut funding for Planned Parenthood following a huge outcry against the decision. Yes, yes, I know the politics. If you’re against breast cancer then you’re in favour of all sorts of wimmins’ [...]

[Read more →]

I know I’m out of step with many…..with most….on this subject but: They had both previously given notice of conscientious objection to any involvement in abortions and said they were not expected to participate in such treatment. But in 2007 the health board introduced changes that meant patients undergoing medical terminations were cared for in [...]

[Read more →]

But an interesting argument all the same. If we are to be truly utilitarian, the pleasure of a woman who is able to adopt a baby must be included in our calculations along with the relief of a woman who is able to abort one she doesn’t want.

[Read more →]

Women who have abortions are at risk of severe mental health problems, new research has found. Regular readers around here will know that I’m predisposed to believe such a finding. However, this specific researcher, a Dr. Coleman, has form in the area: The study said that abortion was linked with a 34 per cent greater [...]

[Read more →]

I have to say that I didn’t think that this would be where the two, abortion and the Equality Act, would first meet: After receiving a letter from the centre, the hospital initially told the nurses that they would be excused from administering the abortion-inducing drugs but would have to remain working at the clinic. [...]

[Read more →]

The plans have sparked controversy, with pro-life campaigners accusing advertising authorities of “trivialising” human life by treating terminations as a consumer choice like cars or washing powder. They emerged as a report accused clinics of using “hard sell” marketing to push pregnant women seeking counselling into having terminations, in order to make more money. Under [...]

[Read more →]

Much of the literature on sex selection has suggested that cultural patterns explain the phenomenon. But Hvisten dahl lays the blame squarely on western governments and businesses that have exported technology and pro-abortion practices without considering the consequences. Amniocentesis and ultrasound scans have had largely positive applications in the west, where they have been used [...]

[Read more →]

But you simply cannot call yourself “pro-choice” and then bar people who do not agree with you from expressing their opposing view. It’s an oxymoronic position. People who defend such regressive behaviour, simply mirror that of the dictatorial hardliners they supposedly stand against. Then they wonder why they get called “feminazis”. Quite.

[Read more →]

A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health. The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart [...]

[Read more →]