Abortion with covert meds and restraints

A court has ruled that a woman with schizoaffective disorder, who was almost 18 weeks pregnant, should have a medical abortion – using ‘covert’ medication and restraint if she was non-compliant. 

The 26-year-old woman had been detained under the Mental Health Act and was suffering psychosis at the time. With one exception, she had reportedly made clear she wanted a termination. The woman previously had a surgical termination but had threatened to kill herself if she was to have another.

The Court of Protection ruled that she lacked capacity to consent to an abortion and how it should take place. The judge said her mental disorder, which had caused wide-ranging delusions about the nature of her pregnancy, ‘had robbed her of the rational basis to understand her pregnancy and the options available to her’.