The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is issuing guidance to its members stating that they should not report illegal late-term abortions to the police, even when the baby’s safety is at risk.
“Do not call the police”, the RCOG guidance states, “if the woman divulges, or you are suspicious, that she may have sought to end her own pregnancy unless she has given explicit consent to do so…
“In considering whether there is a valid justification for breaching confidentiality to protect the safety of others, the ‘safety of the fetus’ is not a valid reason because in law the fetus does not have personhood status.”
Following the introduction of DIY at-home abortion in 2020 during lockdown, some women have been arrested for obtaining and using abortion pills illegally, including Carla Foster, who was jailed and then released following an appeal. Carla Foster used abortion drugs past the legal limit to abort her daughter Lily between 32-34 weeks pregnant.
While abortion provider BPAS claimed there is a “concerted drive towards criminalising women suspected of ending a pregnancy”, an “abortion rights expert” recently admitted that the rise in prosecutions was a result of the DIY home abortion policy itself, because “without being able to present in front of a medical professional some of the basic checks weren’t happening”.
Medical abortion (pills) accounted for 86% of all abortions in England and Wales between January and June 2022, with 54% of those abortions taking place at home.
Official data, published last year, shows that abortion pills have a complication rate of 33% for women 13 to 19 weeks pregnant, rising to 48% for aborted pregnancies over 20 weeks.
Weak policy seized on by “anti-life ideologues”
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “This shocking decree has exposed the RCOG to be an organisation that has contempt for life and the law, as well as women’s health, which it outrageously affects to uphold. In wedding itself to abortion ideology, the RCOG betrays the women it purports to serve.
“As well as dismissing women potentially coerced into abortions at a late stage of pregnancy, the RCOG has also utterly disregarded unborn babies, explicitly stating that the safety of a baby in the womb ‘is not a valid reason’ to contact the police – and according to the RCOG, an unborn baby at nine months is not a person at all – a disgraceful statement.
“We can see how the anarchy resulting from the introduction of the DIY home abortion scheme has been seized on by anti-life ideologues whose goal is decriminalisation. The Government must end this disastrous policy at once, for everyone involved, and not surrender the law to cynical fanatics like those who rule the RCOG.”
Undermining public trust
Mr Robinson continued: “Reporting illegal activities is not about judgment but rather about upholding the standards and regulations that govern medical practice. By discouraging healthcare workers from reporting violations, the RCOG risks compromising the integrity of the medical profession and weakening the mechanisms in place to ensure the highest standards of patient care.
“By advising against reporting to the police, the RCOG risks undermining the public's trust in the medical profession and the legal system itself.
“The RCOG’s guidance appears to be an attempt to normalise late term abortion and pave the way for abortion on demand during any stage of pregnancy – something which the British public have no appetite for.
“Unborn children, lost to late-term abortions, are not mere statistics but fully formed lives deserving of recognition.”