Abortion provider chief argues for abortion as birth control

Published: June 23rd, 2016

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- Abortion

The head of Britain's largest abortion provider has stated that women should be free to use abortion as a means of birth control.

Ann Furedi, who is the Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), has argued for the decriminalisation of abortion in a new book, 'The Moral Case for Abortion'.

BPAS is spearheading a widely-criticised campaign, named 'We Trust Women', to decriminalise abortion in the UK, effectively making abortion permissible up to birth for any reason.

'Should not matter morally'

In her book, Ann Furedi claimed that it should not "matter morally or legally if a woman chooses to practise birth control" through abortion as opposed to using contraception. Her reasoning for this is that the "clinical risks of early abortion are not significantly higher than those of contraception".

The veracity of this claim is questionable. Dr Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist who performed 1200 abortions in the United States, explains the process of early medical abortion in this video {LINK} and its risks and adverse effects to the mother. Effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and prolonged bleeding.

For 8% of women, he says, bleeding lasts for more than 30 days. 1% require hospitalisation due to the severity of the bleeding. He also says that the failure rate increases as the pregnancy progresses, meaning a surgical abortion is offered. Surgical abortion involves removing the unborn baby through suction, and is the most frequently performed abortion, offered between 5-13 weeks.

Surgical abortion carries even more health risks to the mother than medical abortion. {LINK}

'May be an act of killing'

Ann Furedi also claimed that having an abortion is no different to deciding whether to get married or get a divorce.

She said: "Abortion may be an act of killing - but it kills a being that has no sense of life or death, and no awareness of itself as distinct from others.

"Women make moral choices all the time. An abortion may be a difficult choice that a woman would rather not make.

"But this is no different than many decisions we make and women are no less competent to make pregnancy choices than they are to make other life-changing decisions, such as whether or not to marry, or whether or not to divorce."

In contrast to Ann Furedi's assertion, biological science shows that a baby is genetically distinct from the mother from conception.

From 16 weeks a baby can hear sounds from the outside world. Some studies even suggest that babies can feel pain from as early as six weeks' gestation.

'Deceptive and disproportionate'

Christian Concern's Chief Executive Andrea Williams responded to Ann Furedi's comments:

"It is significant that Ann Furedi acknowledges that abortion is an act of killing. Despite her subsequent assertions, it exposes the difficulty in denying the personhood of the unborn child.

"Abortion carries long-term physical, mental and emotional risks to a woman's health. To equate deciding to have an abortion with getting married or even divorced is deceptive and completely disproportionate."

Furedi advocates 'gender-abortion'

Ann Furedi has come under strong criticism repeatedly for her stance on abortion. In 2014, she told online magazine Spiked that women should be able to abort on the grounds of the child's gender.

"The woman gives her reasons, the doctor decides on the grounds as set out in the law... there is no legal requirement to deny a woman an abortion if she has a sex preference, providing that the legal grounds are still met," she said.

"The law is silent on the matter of gender selection, just as it is silent on rape."

Christian Legal Centre client and courageous pro-life campaigner, Aisling Hubert, is in the midst of a legal challenge against two doctors who in 2012 were caught offering 'gender-abortions'. Despite video evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service said it was "not in public interest" to prosecute.

Aisling Hubert, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, is challenging this injustice.

Midwives' union chief told to resign

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has recently come under fire for backing the campaign to decriminalise abortion without consulting its membership. Cathy Warwick, the RCM chief, is also the chair for BPAS's Board of Trustees.

MPs and pro-life groups, including Christian Concern, have called for Cathy Warwick to step down as RCM head due to this blatant conflict of interest.