Scots women and girls forced to travel hundreds of miles to England to undergo abortions

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Woman and girls are travelling as far as 700 miles to get an abortion in England as some NHS boards will not carry out the procedure after 15 weeks in Scotland.Eighty clients from the British Advisory Service (BPAS) were forced to make the journey in 2020 and 2021 to undergo abortions, which were mainly surgical - but that some were forced to continue their pregnancies.Out of the 170 clients the charity treated between 2019 and 2021, five were under the age of 16.Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, but has become harder to access in Scotland.

Eight health boards do not carry out the procedure beyond 18 weeks, four have a limit of 20 weeks, while NHS Fife has a bar of 15 weeks and five days.

NHS England stats showed that between 2010 and 2020, 2,057 women resident in Scotland had abortions carried out in England or Wales, while in 2020 the figure was 123, and in 2019 some 90 women traveled down south.One woman forced to make the journey to get an abortion at 20 weeks, branded provision in Scotland a "disgrace".She said: "The thought of women having to go through what I went through is a disgrace to Scotland, a country which so outwardly proclaims to be a progressive nation."BPAS warned the "gaping hole" in provision was denying many women a fundamental human right.Rachael Clarke, chief of staff at BPAS, said: "There are women who are continuing pregnancies who would otherwise not want to.

We're talking about children that are being sent over the border in some cases."Women who need abortions at later gestations are disproportionately likely to have additional vulnerabilities, due to drink and drug misuse or they may lead chaotic lives."There should be a centrally commissioned specialist service for surgical abortions up to