Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, November Induced Abortion and Mental Health: A systematic review of the evidence.
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However, doctors remain formally charged with making abortion decisions even, as in the vast majority of cases, where the request for abortion is not grounded primarily in medical factors. In abortion, the legal role of the doctor goes far beyond what we would expect for other medical procedures. Elsewhere, the clinician's duties are typically limited to providing clear and balanced advice about medical risks and offering the opportunity to talk through any concerns in an impartial and supportive environment.
While the recent Telegraph 'sting' focussed on whether current restrictions on abortion are being applied in practice, it should also remind us of the fundamental question of whether such restrictions remain appropriate in a world which has otherwise moved beyond the 'doctor knows best' paternalism and underpinning assumptions of female inadequacy which characterised medical practice in the s.
This is not to deny, of course, that abortions are different from other medical procedures. Abortion involves deliberately ending a potential human life. And while most of us do not accept that the foetus is a full moral person of equal status to the pregnant woman, many of us nonetheless believe that embryonic human life is of moral significance.
Second, abortion decisions differ from many other medical decisions in a further profound way in that they often require deep reflection on the shape of one's future life could I cope with a child right now? Would we be good parents? Yet while these differences are real and important, they do not provide a good basis for denying female autonomy in this most personal of decisions and maintaining the current legal regulation of abortion.
Indeed, the fact that termination decisions are serious, with potentially far-reaching implications, might appear all the more reason for believing that it is women who must make them.
Contrary to the assumptions which underpin the current legal framework, women are more likely to agonise over abortion decisions and are far better placed to understand the implications for themselves and their families. It is these women, moreover, who live with the consequences of any choice made.
We came close to achieving a better law in , when reforming MPs proposed a number of changes to modernise the Abortion Act. One amendment foresaw the removal of the requirement of medical approval for all but late terminations.
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