JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Abortions suspended at Marie Stopes: "Women are being channelled into the abortion industry funded by the Department of Health"

Saturday, 20 August 2016

Abortions suspended at Marie Stopes: "Women are being channelled into the abortion industry funded by the Department of Health"

Paul Tully SPUC's general secretary

Late on the afternoon of Friday 19th August Marie Stopes International (MSI) was reported to have suspended half of its abortion services following a report from the Care Quality Commission(CQC). These restrictions have immediate effect. According to other press reports these CQC concerns related to poor governance arrangements and to specific immediate concerns relating to the lack of assurance in MSI regarding consent and safeguarding and in training and competence in conscious sedation and general anaesthesia.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned the reaction of the CQC to the dangerous and illegal abortion practices in private abortion clinics as inadequate, immoral and unlawful collusion in criminal activity.

The law permits abortion only when there is a health risk meaning that continuing the pregnancy is more dangerous than an abortion. The department of health and the CQC disregard the law and thousands of women are mis-certified for abortion. 98% of abortions are certified on mental grounds when there is no real risk to her mental or physical health if she has the baby. These abortions are illegal. If abortion agencies had the welfare of women truly at heart, they would ensure that the illegal practices that Marie Stopes, BPAS, NHS hospitals and others follow were stopped.

Paul Tully, SPUC General Secretary said:

"Pregnant women are suffering intolerably. The CQC is defending illegal government abortion policy which kills children and sometimes women too. Women are not being offered proper support when facing difficulties in pregnancy - they are simply being channelled into the abortion industry funded by the Department of Health.

"Voluntary sector groups like the pro-life organisations, churches and family support groups struggle to provide real practical help but the statutory providers offer pregnant women nothing but abortion. The Departmental policy fuels abortion on an industrial scale - 550 abortions every day in Britain. Abortion is an inherently risky interference in the natural pregnancy process.

"Women like Aisha Chithira who died after a Marie Stopes abortion in Ealing represent only the tip of the iceberg of women who are killed, injured or left with long term problems resulting from infection, extreme emotional distress or the dangerous hormonal changes caused by abortion which can affect breast physiology. Jade Rees who committed suicide 3 weeks after a 'legal' abortion last year shows how dangerous abortion is to women from a mental health perspective."

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.