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Abortion: Drugs

Asked by Andrew RosindellReform UKDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 4 December 2024UIN 16128

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reversing whether the decision to allow women to take (a) mifepristone and (b) misoprostol at home to terminate a pregnancy.

Answered by Karin Smyth

The Government has no plans to assess the potential merits of reversing the decision to allow women to take mifepristone and misoprostol at home to terminate a pregnancy. Abortion in England and Wales is governed by the Abortion Act 1967, which defines the criteria under which terminations can take place. Under the act, women have access to regulated and National Health Service funded abortion services, which now includes taking both abortion pills at home, up to a 10-week gestation.

As with other matters of conscience, abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance. It would be for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion.

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