Britain's biggest abortion provider is calling for a law change to drop the "arcane" need for two doctors to approve the procedure.
The demand from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) comes on the back of a poll it commissioned, which shows 59% of people believe abortion should be legally available on demand. Interestingly, this is a drop from the 64% who believed the same in 1997.
BPAS is also arguing that there's no reason why nurses cannot assess women requesting abortions and provide the abortion pill, which is currently done by doctors in the first nine weeks.
However, Maggie Blott, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC that the two-doctor rule provides a safety net for complicated late abortions, and, similarly, it is important to have a doctor involved in administering the abortion pill in case of complications.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children counters BPAS with different survey results: of 1,046 women asked whether they supported either easier access to abortion or more support for women who wanted to keep their baby, 8% wanted easier abortion access while 85% wanted more help for mothers-to-be, including advice about alternatives to abortion, and government funding for such alternatives.
So, what do you think? Does some of the red tape need to be cut to make abortion access easier for women, or should the government instead focus on improving access to other options, such as adoption services? Or maybe it's a case of addressing both options?
