Video footage has revealed the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) illegally posting abortion pills to a woman who said she wanted to terminate her pregnancy because she didn’t “want to look pregnant on holiday.”
Abortion remains illegal in England and Wales unless specific grounds are met, not for any reason.
The woman, who was not even pregnant, was sent the dangerous abortion pills after calling the telemedicine service as part of a ‘mystery shopper’ undercover investigation, commissioned by Christian Concern in light of the government’s extraordinary double U-turn, which allowed entirely at-home abortions to take place during UK lockdown. Public health consultant and former director at Marie Stopes, Kevin Duffy, carried out the research exercise. To date, 20 volunteers have taken part in the ‘mystery client’ exercise, to see if BPAS and Marie Stopes UK are abiding by the law and properly caring for women. In every case, pills were sent to the volunteers, despite the use of false names, dates of birth and gestational dates.
The investigation shows that these home abortion schemes can be misused to procure illegal and dangerous abortions. Coercive partners, family members and groomers could obtain pills through these schemes to cover up abuse. It has also revealed that the service can be manipulated by a third party to obtain abortion pills for an underage sexual abuse victim without any scrutiny. Furthermore, the pills can also be obtained by a third party to obtain abortion pills which could then be surreptitiously put in a women’s food or drink.
The investigation also exposes that a tourist from another country, who does not have recourse to NHS funding for healthcare, could get an abortion using the ‘DIY’ abortion service and have it fully paid by the taxpayer on the NHS.
This latest revelation comes ahead of a judicial review tomorrow, Wednesday 29 July, at the Court of Appeal, on the government’s decision to allow DIY abortions during the coronavirus lockdown.
The call
On the call, one of the volunteers of the ‘mystery client’ investigation, ‘Saskia’ (not her real name), is asked by a BPAS call handler and midwife why she is seeking an abortion. She replies:
“I’d be more than happy to have children in the future and stuff like that. And we’ve discussed that and we want children, but just not at this particular point in time because we’ve just literally like booked a holiday and we were just quite confined during the lockdown. I mean, we’re both all right, but it’s just been a bit emotionally draining, all these restrictions and everything. And we were just so looking forward to this holiday and I just want to… We just wanted to really focus on this holiday and have a good time and not – I just didn’t want to worry about looking pregnant on the beach and all that. I just, it’s just so bad the timing right now.”
The BPAS call handler asks when the holiday is and says: “you probably wouldn’t look pregnant?”
Saskia replies:
“Yeah…I just don’t want to really deal with any aspect of the pregnancy just now at this point in time. And I was just – it’s not just looking pregnant. It’s probably just whatever, morning sickness and anything … I mean, it’s been all right so far, I just felt a bit queasy in the morning. And I just do not want to deal with all of that right now.”
‘I have to attach what you tell me to a legal reason’
The call handler then says:
“It sounds to me that the individual reasons you’re giving come down to you just not being emotionally ready for a pregnancy right now.
“Any reason that you ever give is always going to be valid for you. So whether it’s physically with regards to however you look or feel, with regards to nausea, again all your travel plans, it sounds maybe like a physical, emotional time that you’re not ready for pregnancy right now.
“I don’t want to put words in your mouth. What I have to do is attach what you tell me to a legal reason.
“Any reason other than the sex of the baby is a valid reason to us, but to attach it to a legal reason, it sounds like emotionally it’s not the right time. Because it doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s financial, possibly slightly physical, it doesn’t sound maybe mentally, like you’re not ready.”
Saskia agrees, says the timing isn’t perfect and the BPAS call handler says: “That’s absolutely fine.”
The abortion pills were received by Saskia shortly after.
‘This is what the abortion industry wants’
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said: “This is what the abortion industry wants. Abortion pills on demand, no questions asked. So it is sadly not a surprise that they are prepared to give out abortion pills for a bikini body. The life of the unborn child is worth less than a bikini selfie.
“In their world, the unborn child is inconvenient and irrelevant. The physical and emotional care of the woman also appears to be something they don’t care about.
“Abortion pills through the post is wide open to abuse and women’s lives endangered.
“The service needs to be stopped immediately and a thorough investigation needs to occur around the legality and practices of the two major abortion providers in the UK.”
Find out more about DIY abortions