Posted on 12/28/2007 8:09:38 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Family doctors are threatening a revolt against Government plans to allow them to perform abortions in their surgeries, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Four out of five GPs do not want to carry out terminations even though the idea is being tested in NHS pilot schemes, a survey has revealed.
The findings will throw doubt on Government trials to provide medical abortions - using drugs in the early stage of pregnancy - outside hospitals.
In a survey for The Daily Telegraph that was carried out by Doctors.Net, an online organisation representing GPs in England and Wales, only 14 per cent of the 2,175 GPs who responded were willing to undertake the procedure.
More than three quarters said they were not willing to carry out abortions and 54 per cent of these strongly objected to the idea.
They said the plan just "lumped" another problem on family doctors and could damage their relationship with patients.
Most objections appeared to be on safety and workload grounds rather than from a moral standpoint, although other surveys had suggested that one in five GPs described themselves as anti-abortion and one in four had refused to sign the required paperwork.
Under current laws, the procedure can be carried out only by a qualified doctor in an NHS hospital or approved private clinic.
One third of the 200,000 abortions in England and Wales are carried out medically, with the rest done surgically. A surgical abortion can be done under local anaesthetic after the first seven weeks of pregnancy.
A medical abortion can be induced in the first nine weeks of pregnancy by two doses of drugs administered two days apart and carrying it out in GP surgeries fits in with Government policy to provide care closer to people's homes.
The powerful House of Commons science and technology select committee said there was no reason why women could not take the second dose of drugs at home or why nurses could not prescribe the medication.
Nigel Dickson, a GP practising in Southampton, said: "The Government is just lumping another problem on to GPs.
"GPs would be happy to carry out terminations if they could ensure that a proper service would be carried out before, during and after the terminations.
"As it stands they know that if anything went wrong and the woman started to haemorrhage she would be calling NHS Direct and getting through to an answerphone. Any proposals could be potentially damaging to GPs and an insult to the ladies concerned."
Dr Tim Ringrose, a medical director at Doctors.Net, said many GPs felt that by carrying out terminations they would be compromising their relationships with patients.
He said: "GPs often advise women on whether they should have an abortion and they feel that they would be able to offer less support if they were undertaking the termination themselves. It's a complex issue - it's not just about a woman taking a pill and then leaving with the problem cured."
Two pilot studies - at St Mary's Hospital in central London and at a community hospital in the south of England - are almost finished and will be evaluated in the new year.
Early results from a study in which 172 women had medical abortions under the supervision of nurses found that there were no serious problems.
A spokesman for the British Medical Association said: "The BMA supports safe and improved access to abortion services. However, we would need to look at the Government's proposals in detail before commenting on whether GP surgeries could provide the level of care needed."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "A final decision in allowing GPs to carry out the procedure in surgeries has not been made."
It looks like Brits will be “allowed” to abort themselves out of existence.
yitbos
Yeah, no kidding. You think any muslim guy is going to allow his woman to get an abortion???? Perhaps only if the baby was 100% known to be a girl, maybe.
He’d probably kill her on the spot for even bringing it up in the first place.
Of course they do, they wait until they are 10 or 11 strap a bomb on their back and send them out to abort themselves. Same affect just a different method.
Yeah, lets murder as many British babies as possible. The utterly pathetic fertility rate (of non-muslim invader) is not low enough.
Extintion of the British race in 25 years or bust!
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