Hundreds of NI healthcare workers oppose ‘at-home’ abortions

Almost 300 healthcare workers signed an open letter to the Minister of Health rejecting the legalisation of ‘at-home’ abortions in Northern Ireland.

The 277 healthcare workers drafted the letter following a campaign by abortion advocates for the provision of over-the-phone abortion services.

The letter demands better care for women and children than “unsafe and unacceptable at-home abortion schemes”.

A Northern Ireland GP, Andrew Cupples, called on Minister for Health Robin Swann not to “bow-down” to the “cynical ideological” campaign for at-home abortions.

“This is a cynical ideological move to seize ground while the attention of the politicians, health service and population are otherwise occupied with Covid-19,” Dr Cupples said. “Far from protecting vulnerable women, it opens the door for further coercion and abuse.”

Dr Cupples argued that patients who receive telemedicine abortifacients will not have received a proper assessment.

“The notion of properly informed consent, a pillar of good medical care, is thrown out the window,” he said. “It flies in the face of good medical care.”