PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Abortion: Analgesics (19 June 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the release of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales in 2018 that show a 19 per cent increase in abortions at 24 weeks or more for disability, whether the women who had late term abortions were given the option of painkiller for their unborn baby prior to the termination.

Asked by:
Sir John Hayes (Conservative)

This information is not collected centrally. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guidelines on ‘The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion and Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice’. This concluded that “the case for administering analgesia before an invasive procedure (in addition to maternal general anaesthesia) after 24 weeks when the [fetus’] neuroanatomical connections are in place, needs to be considered together with the practicalities and risks of administration of fetal analgesia. Evidence that analgesia confers any benefit on the fetus at any gestation is lacking but should be a focus of future research”.

Answered by:
Dame Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative)
28 June 2019