Courtney McGrailA British doctor has been ordered to appear in court accused of planning an abortion based on the sex of the unborn baby.
Dr Prabha Sivaraman was one of two medics recorded allegedly agreeing to arrange terminations because of the gender of the foetus in a Telegraph investigation in 2012.
Dr Sivaraman from South Yorkshire has been served with a summons to appear before Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court next month to face an allegation under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
The document states that she faces an allegation of “conspiracy to procure poison to be used with intent to procure abortion” contrary to section 59 of the Act.
It is part of a private prosecution brought by Aisling Hupert, from Brighton, a member of the anti-abortion group Abort67, and supported by the Christian Legal Centre.
Dr Sivaraman, who worked for private clinics and National Health Service hospitals in Manchester at the time of the investigation, was recorded telling a woman: “I don’t ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination.”
Abortion is legal in Britain under the 1967 Abortion Act which permits terminations in certain circumstances.
Some abortion providers claim the law is “silent” on the question of gender, however, the prosecution is based on the argument that precisely because it is not a ground under the Act it is therefore illegal.