A group of ‘pro-choice’ doctors at the British Medical Association have voted to lobby the UK’s governments to provide free taxpayer-funded abortions for women from the US, but have not made any similar call to provide women who do not have access to public funding for maternity healthcare to be provided with free taxpayer-funded maternity care if they proceed with their pregnancy.
In an emergency debate during the BMA’s Annual Representative Meeting (ARM), the BMA voted to condemn the recent US Supreme Court decision that permits individual states to enact their own abortion law, in addition to voting to lobby the government to provide taxpayer-funded abortions for US women.
The motion, proposed by the medical student Marina Politis reads:
“This meeting calls upon the BMA to… [c]ontinue to condemn the overturning of Roe vs Wade and lobby all UK governments to condemn this decision… and [s]upport the provision of free and safe abortion care to all nationals seeking this in the UK without subjecting them to the overseas patient upfront tariff, regardless of borders”.
As was pointed out during the debate, the motion to provide abortions to “all nationals” is ambiguous and seems to imply that the BMA supports providing free abortions in the UK to anyone from anywhere in the world.
Politis claimed that “abortion is essential healthcare”.
“We also need to provide safe abortion care to all nationals seeking this in the UK, without subjecting them to overseas patient upfront tariffs – and this must be regardless of borders going far beyond the US,” she said.
The motion passed with 57 per cent of doctors voting in favour of the clause calling for the UK to offer free abortions to all nationalities, 36 per cent against and seven per cent abstaining.
MSI Reproductive Choice (formerly Marie Stopes International) charges £2,657 for women from overseas to have an abortion when a baby is between 19 weeks and 24 weeks’ gestation.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “Again, we see ‘pro-choice’ activists showing their true colours. They are really only pro one particular choice, and that is sadly abortion.”
“While these doctors are eager to lobby the government to provide free abortions to end the life of a baby, there was no mention of lobbying the government to provide public funding for women from overseas who continue with their pregnancies and need vital maternity care.”
Roe v Wade
With the overturning of Roe v Wade last month, the matter of abortion legislation has been returned to individual states. This has not introduced a total ban on abortion throughout the United States, instead, individual states will decide their own abortion legislation.
In practice, this will likely result in liberal states, such as New York, having very permissive abortion laws, and a number of conservative states having abortion laws that will include full protections for unborn children.
According to pro-abortion think tank Guttmacher Institute, 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that explicitly protect the “right” to abortion to varying degrees, meaning abortion would likely continue to be available in these states.
The pro-abortion think tank, which was previously the research arm of abortion provider Planned Parenthood, also indicates that 26 states are “certain or likely” to introduce restrictions that would protect unborn children from abortion.
Nine states have pre-Roe restrictions on abortion that could potentially now be enforced, and 13 states have what abortion advocates have labelled as “trigger bans” in place, meaning that abortion restrictions will be in place now that Roe has been overturned.
For the remaining states, there will soon likely be new legislation proposed by both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates to change abortion legislation in each of these individual states. Which legislation is passed will depend on the make-up of each state’s legislature and public demand for changes in legislation from people in that State.