Temporary ‘DIY’ abortion rules introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic will be made permanent in Wales, the devolved government has announced.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said it was a ‘progressive step’ and added that she had carefully considered the responses to a public consultation in Wales and decided the arrangements were safe.
However, 75% of responses to the consultation were, on its own admission, removed by the Welsh Government. All of those removed opposed the proposal to make the arrangements permanent. The government rationalised this on the basis that they were all submitted via a standard template offered by campaign group Right to Life UK to individual members and were therefore treated as a single response.
Alithea Williams, Public Policy Manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: ‘The DIY home abortion scheme has inflicted untold damage to countless mothers and their babies. The Welsh Government may think this decision is “progressive”, but what is progressive about leaving women to bleed away their baby at home, with no medical care? It is a return to backstreet abortions.
‘It is also completely undemocratic. The original policy was introduced as an emergency measure, with no parliamentary scrutiny.’
It’s a different story in England, where the temporary arrangements are now due to be reversed on 29 August.
