PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
ACCESS TO ABORTION (28 April 1998)

leave out from 'effect' to end and add 'expresses, yet again, serious concern at the manner in which abortion virtually on demand is practised under the present law contrary to the promises of its sponsors; notes that two successive Gallup polls among gynaecologists have shown that about 72 per cent. stated that NHS hospitals in which they work or had worked practised abortion on demand thus creating "inequalities" through doctors flouting the law; notes that complaints about inequalities in the NHS have been persistently used by private abortion clinics to justify the enormous numbers of abortions carried out by their doctors practising abortion on demand; recalls the motion passed by a recent BMA junior doctors conference condemning the harrassment of junior doctors exercising their legal right not to be involved in abortion and asking for action to protect them; further notes that as the Social Services Select Committee reported in 1991 many young doctors have had their careers in gynaecology destroyed as a result of their objections to abortion-particularly on demand; and condemns the call for it to be mandatory for all doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion to register thus strengthening the legal framework for a witch-hunt against those opposed to abortion in principle as well as against those doctors who would accept some abortions but, acting responsibly, would object in other cases, such as where the operation could cause damage to the physical or mental health of their patients.'.

Sponsored by:
Mr Joe Benton (Labour)