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5:17pm Sunday 18th May 2008
Doctors and nurses are refusing to carry out abortions on moral grounds, forcing the NHS to contract them out to the private sector.
Medics at Eastbourne District General Hospital have forged an agreement that they will not carry out terminations for "social" reasons after 14 weeks of pregnancy - even though the legal limit is 24 weeks.
One of the country's leading gynaecologists - who worked at the hospital for 19 years - last night said the policy reflected increasing unease among medical staff across Britain over late terminations.
Consultant Dr Vincent Argent said carrying out late abortions caused a major moral conflicts for doctors.
Dr Argent, a former director of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: "Late abortions conflict with everything doctors and nurses are trained to do - preserve life."
His opinion has been backed by representatives from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and BPAS.
Dr Argent was speaking ahead of debates due to be held in Parliament tomorrow (on Tuesday) about the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
Pro-life MPs have argued for an amendment changing the maximum legal limit for "social" abortions, those carried out on healthy foetuses through parental choice.
Politicians will by asked to vote on whether they believe the limit should be brought earlier, with 13, 16, 18, 20 and 22 weeks expected to be considered.
Dr Argent said the number of NHS doctors prepared to carry out late abortions had dwindled and many hospitals were being forced to contract them out to private clinics or charities.
Around 75% of abortions carried out after 17 weeks of pregnancy each year have been done outside the NHS.
Dr Argent has urged MPs to back plans to bring the limit forward.
Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson supported his case and would be voting to reduce the time period for abortions.
He told The Argus: "This does not surprise me. It must be depressing for medical staff to be asked to carry out late term abortions when they know that medical science has advanced so much since the 1960s when the original act was was passed and that many premature babies can now survive."
East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the EDGH, confirmed that there was a 14 week limit for social abortions but made clear that staff still carried out terminations which were necessary for medical reasons later in pregnancy.
But the trust declined to comment further on the issue.
Sussex Pro-Life campaigner Judy Law said she could not support the bill because she felt changes were wrongly being made in conjunction with policies on embryology.
She added that she was concerned that no changes were being made to laws which allow pregnancies to be terminated at any time if the child has a disability.
She said: "People need to be aware of the reality of abortion, that it is actually killing a child.
"Whatever age a termination is carried out it doesn't matter. Life starts at conception.
"The message being sent out about disabilities is worrying. It suggests to people with disabilities that their life is not as important as others."
Should abortion after 14 weeks be outlawed?
Matron, says...
7:58pm Sun 18 May 08
mark wrote:no, you are quite wrong, its enshrined in law that Nurses and Medical staff can opt out of the actual abortion procedure - they are however not allowed to refuse to care for these women, before or after the procedure
the question of abortion after 14 weeks is not the point of the story, surely the nhs could collapse if staff decided what should and should not be done. should smokers be given expensive heart surgery? should muslim staff look after jewish people.? the point is that staff may not be happy working on various people, imagine looking after a child molester? could i say i dont want him to be treated? its a big can of worms , if we can say what staff do in work.
Somebodies child, says...
10:11pm Sun 18 May 08
eddy jacobsen, London says...
11:01pm Sun 18 May 08
SADDENED, Hove says...
7:33am Mon 19 May 08
T.Ruth, says...
8:31am Mon 19 May 08
SADDENED wrote:I totally agree with you and I wish to add this; no matter what the reasons may be, or how convincing the pro abortionists think their argument is, abortion is nothing less than an act of murder. Feminists can talk themselves silly trying to convince everyone that abortion is the sole right of the mother, but they are wrong and deep down they know they are wrong, because once life begins in the womb an individual human being has been created and no other human being has the right to terminate that life.
Doctors' and nurses' jobs are to save lives not kill them for social reasons. It is time for people to accept their responsibilities for creating life. It is time to move away from selfishness and greed.
Charlie, Brighton says...
8:59am Mon 19 May 08
T.Ruth, says...
9:59am Mon 19 May 08
Charlie wrote:Why, because the act of abortion (termination of a life) for convenience sake is a ruthlessly selfish act, which for reasons beyond my comprehension is performed by people who would be horrified if they were asked to end the life of that same child once it were born. This leads me to believe that out of sight out of mind is a factor that allows otherwise decent people to go through with the act of abortion.
I am neither for nor against abortion, I believe its up to the idividual/couple iinvolved to choose. This issue always has and always will be a matter of personal choice. People arguing for and people arguing against. If a child is concieved by \"accident\" say due to faild contraception and it is not viable for the parents to look after a child due to age, money or other circumstances then why not let them have an abortion?
Eco Man, Kemp Town says...
10:30am Mon 19 May 08
A question, Here says...
10:41am Mon 19 May 08
steve, accrington says...
11:40am Mon 19 May 08
Paul, Brighton Seafront says...
12:11pm Mon 19 May 08
Eco Man wrote:Why a 9 year old specifically?
Every woman who aborts has to walk along the pavement, and look at a 9-year-old child, and think to herself: that is what the child she aborted would have become. So many women's aggression when the subject is raised points to an essential feeling of guilt.
Me, Worthing says...
12:20pm Mon 19 May 08
A question wrote:I completely agree. If a woman is raped she will have to live with the memory of that ordeal for the rest of her life. How much harder must it be when you have a constant reminder in the child that you concived as a result of the rape?
what about if a woman becomes pregnant after she is raped? Or if the fetus is severly deformed and will have no quality of life? What if, you make all abortions ilegal and women in desperate need seek back street abortions and end up dying themselves? Perhaps it is not quite as simple as right or wrong.
Charlie, brighton says...
12:25pm Mon 19 May 08
steve wrote:see my previous comment, what if contracpetion fails unbeknown to the people involved. untill they realise they are pregnant.
CONTRACEPTION !
Nic, Brighton says...
12:53pm Mon 19 May 08
Andy R, Hove says...
1:24pm Mon 19 May 08
Mrs Knitting Needle, Back street. says...
2:06pm Mon 19 May 08
T.Ruth wrote:Suprisingly, the world does not revolve around YOUR comprehension of things. Anyone who things abortion is wrong should listen to some of the rubbish you write and think of how much nicer the world would be if your mother had had a large gin and a hot bath or had just used her head......
Charlie wrote: I am neither for nor against abortion, I believe its up to the idividual/couple iinvolved to choose. This issue always has and always will be a matter of personal choice. People arguing for and people arguing against. If a child is concieved by \"accident\" say due to faild contraception and it is not viable for the parents to look after a child due to age, money or other circumstances then why not let them have an abortion?Why, because the act of abortion (termination of a life) for convenience sake is a ruthlessly selfish act, which for reasons beyond my comprehension is performed by people who would be horrified if they were asked to end the life of that same child once it were born. This leads me to believe that out of sight out of mind is a factor that allows otherwise decent people to go through with the act of abortion.
david cameron-young, abingdon says...
4:23pm Mon 19 May 08
Andy R, Hove says...
12:48am Tue 20 May 08
Nic, Brighton says...
12:44pm Tue 20 May 08
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mark, brighton says...
7:51pm Sun 18 May 08