Medway District Health Authority And Abortion Services

EDM number 269 in 1991-92, proposed by Joan Ruddock on 26/11/1991.

That this House condemns the decision of Medway District Health Authority, as set out in Dr Richard Swan's letter to general practitioners and reported in The Guardian on 15th November to restrict NHS abortion services to women who already have four or more children; notes that this would exclude the vast majority of pregnant women from access to safe, legal NHS abortions; expresses its grave concern that young and poor women who cannot afford ú200 for a private abortion may turn to illegal practitioners, thus risking injury, ill-health and death; questions whether the action of Medway District Health Authority is legal under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967; concludes that these so-called reforms of the NHS are working to the detriment of women's health; and calls on the Secretary of State for Health to clarify the situation, in the context of the terms of the Abortion Act 1967 and the creeping privatisation of NHS services.

This motion has been signed by a total of 65 MPs.