Britain’s biggest maternity union has joined forces with abortion providers and radical feminists in an ‘extreme’ campaign to abolish the legal limits on abortion.
The Royal College of Midwives, which represents nearly 30,000 midwives and health workers, is calling for women to be allowed to terminate an unborn child at any stage of pregnancy – and face no criminal sanctions.
Abolishing abortion law would do away with the current time limit of 24 weeks of pregnancy, after which a woman can only have a termination for medical reasons.
The campaign comes after a 24-year-old woman was recently jailed for deliberately inducing a miscarriage when she was eight months pregnant.
Cathy Warwick, who is the The Royal College of Midwives Chief Executive and General Secretary
But critics fear such a radical change in the law will lead to healthy foetuses being aborted late in pregnancy for reasons including being the ‘wrong’ sex or simply for the convenience of the mother.
The RCM’s new policy was formally announced in a new ‘position statement’ published last week, which has already sparked a rebellion among the union’s members.
The continued criminalisation of abortion in the UK may drive women to access abortion services which are neither safe nor legal, and which may prove harmful or even fatal. Accordingly the RCM supports the campaign to remove abortion from criminal law
RCM Abortion Position Statement published last week
Around 200 midwives and maternity workers signed a letter to the union’s board condemning the ‘utterly unacceptable’ move, on which they say members were not consulted.
‘For the organisation that represents us to support the radical position that all protections for unborn children should be removed right through to birth, and without any consultation of us members, we find utterly unacceptable,’ the letter states.
‘We, the undersigned, therefore wish to state that the RCM does not speak in our name.’
Signatory Michelle Viney, a midwife of 15 years’ standing, said: ‘Why could the RCM think it could do this without asking any of their members? I find it so shocking.
‘I financially support it, but I wouldn’t want to be paying a fee towards an organisation which is going to be campaigning for something which, morally, I 100 per cent disagree with.’
The Mail on Sunday can also reveal astonishing links between the head of the RCM and Britain’s biggest abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which is driving the ‘We Trust Women’ campaign.
BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi (pictured), said abortion should be accepted as a form of family planning. She is married to sociology professor Frank Furedi, a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party
BPAS runs a nationwide chain of abortion clinics and receives £25 million of public money to carry out more than 63,000 terminations a year on behalf of the NHS.
But Cathy Warwick, the £155,000-a-year Chief Executive and General Secretary of the RCM, has been a trustee of BPAS for at least five years, and in 2014 became Chairman of the abortion provider, with ultimate responsibility for the charity’s strategy and direction.
Her BPAS position – which is unpaid – is not mentioned in her RCM biography.
Since Professor Warwick became Chair of Trustees, BPAS has taken an increasingly political direction with a key objective being to ‘expand our advocacy for the decriminalisation and destigmatisation of abortion throughout the UK’, corporate papers reveal.
Left, The RCM Abortion Position Statement and right, The Royal College of Midwives badge. The college was established in 1881 with the Latin motto Vita Donum Dei, meaning ‘Life is the gift of God’
In February, as BPAS launched its ‘We Trust Women’ campaign to ‘decriminalise’ abortion, Prof Warwick signalled the union supported the campaign – meaning the professional body was ranked alongside feminist groups such as The Fawcett Society, the National Union of Students’ Women’s Campaign and Southall Black Sisters.
Last Friday, the position was confirmed in its statement, which reads: ‘The continued criminalisation of abortion in the UK may drive women to access abortion services which are neither safe nor legal, and which may prove harmful or even fatal.
‘Accordingly, the RCM supports the campaign to remove abortion from criminal law.’
If these aims were ever implemented, it would mean the introduction of abortion up to birth for any reason. We object to this new extreme position taken by the College. It is out of keeping with what we take to be the ethic of our profession
Letter to RCM chief signed by 200 midwives and maternity workers
The document, which emphasises the rights of women, makes no reference to the moral rights of the unborn child.
This is despite recent calls to lower the legal limit for abortions.
Survival rates for premature babies have improved massively in recent years and now 80 per cent born at 25 weeks survive.
Last night, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Alton of Liverpool said the RCM’s support was ‘shocking’.
He added that he found it ‘extraordinary’ that midwives ‘who have a high calling – bringing babies into the world’ were ‘being frogmarched into carrying out terminations’.
Citing the cases of two Christian midwives in Scotland who resigned after refusing to care for women who had undergone abortions, he added: ‘It is bad enough for people to lose their jobs and to have their consciences trampled upon.
‘But in addition, that the Royal College which represents them – without any consultation with its membership – is campaigning for a more draconian abortion law, will shock any fair-minded person.
‘Next year there will be eight million abortions since it was legalised in Britain, and it is not the job of midwives to add to that number.’
The British Pregnancy Advice Service 'We Trust Women' campaign document (pictured) states: 'The abortion time limit would be removed from criminal law. There is no doubt that abortions post viability raise particular moral concerns for many...but there is no evidence that [it] leads to an increase in later terminations'
BPAS is led by Ann Furedi, its £145,000-a-year Chief Executive, who is a former Cosmopolitan journalist turned advocate of abortion as a method of birth control.
In 2000 Ms Furedi said: ‘It may be time to understand that, for women, abortion is an essential method of family planning and accept it as such.’
Most abortions carried out in Britain today are authorised under the 1967 Abortion Act on the grounds that continuing with the pregnancy would jeopardise a woman’s mental health. Such abortions are allowed up until 24 weeks’ gestation.
Only a tiny proportion of abortions take place at 24 weeks or later: there were 211 such terminations in 2014
After that, they are only legal on ‘medical’ grounds – if continuing with the pregnancy would endanger the life of the woman, or the unborn child has severe health problems.
Consequently only a tiny proportion of abortions take place at 24 weeks or later: there were 211 such terminations in 2014.
The We Trust Women campaign explicitly states that ‘the abortion time limit would be removed from criminal law,’ if it succeeded.
It claims there is ‘no evidence that removing criminal sanctions leads to an increase in later terminations’.
Canada and parts of Australia have already ‘decriminalised’ abortion altogether, it adds.
Concerned midwives and ‘pro-life’ campaigners dispute this, saying there is evidence of increased late-term abortions in the Australian state of Victoria after its Abortion Law Reform of 2008.
Sally Carson, a trained midwife from Chester, said: ‘Midwives are for delivering live babies wherever possible and trying to preserve the lives of those born prematurely. These babies are not tumours that they can just remove.’
Tory MP Fiona Bruce, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said: ‘To propose abortion up to birth for any reason at all is, I believe, completely out of step both with the society and many of society’s representatives in Parliament. We need to stand against this.’
A well-placed source said last night the Government had ‘no plans’ to amend the 24-limit or weaken abortion laws.