British Society for Population Studies' Conference 2013

The 2013 BSPS Conference will be held at the University of Swansea from Monday 9 - Wednesday 11 September. All Conference sessions will be on site, where Conference catering and accommodation will also be available at very reasonable rates. Booking forms will be available from late April/early May, as will a provisional timetable.

There will be a full programme of simultaneous strand sessions of submitted papers. Proposals and abstracts for papers and posters are invited across the entire demographic and population studies spectrum. Presenters are advised that ongoing work with incomplete analyses and findings should be submitted as posters rather than papers. Oral presentations should include results. For organizational purposes, strand and session organisers have been allocated to specific themes: email enquiries may be addressed to the strand or session organiser shown on the call for papers and on the BSPS website.

Qualitative and quantitative submissions are equally welcome. Presenters of posters will be expected to attend the poster session on the first evening of the Conference, and to stand with their posters to discuss them. BSPS is particularly keen to stage a lively poster session again in 2013, following the success of the 2012 session when over 40 posters were on display. Presenters are encouraged to indicate that they would be willing to present in this format.

Some sessions within strands have been suggested, which will be organised by the person named on the call for papers, where they are shown under the overall strand session. BSPS will be happy to consider papers which do not appear to fall within the compass of any named strand or session, which may be submitted to the interdisciplinary/other papers strand.

You are advised to read the full call for papers before proceeding with your submission. This includes a listing of strand organizers with contact details. Access the full call for papers here: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/socialPolicy/BSPS/annualConference/Home.aspx All submissions will be acknowledged by the BSPS Secretariat, who will collate submissions and pass them to strand or session organisers for assessment. A final decision will follow by the end of April. At this stage, presenters will be asked to register for the Conference before their paper or poster can be confirmed for presentation. Booking forms for the Conference and a provisional timetable will be sent to all potential presenters by early May.

If you require any assistance with your submission, or any further information about the Conference, please contact the BSPS Secretariat at pic@lse.ac.uk. Further contact details at www.bsps.org.uk, where Conference updates will also be posted.

PLEASE NOTE that any extended abstracts should be sent directly to pic@lse.ac.uk and NOT COPIED into the submissions form. These will be accepted in PDF format only. Full papers should NOT be sent'''

2011 Census: England and Wales

Key Figures

• Ninety two per cent (49.8 million) of usual residents aged three years and over spoke English (English or Welsh in Wales) as their main language.
• Of the eight per cent (4.2 million) of usual residents aged three years and over with a main language other than English, 79 per cent (3.3 million) could speak English very well or well.
• In 2011, less than half a per cent (138,000) of all usual residents aged three years and over could not speak English.
• The second most reported main language was Polish (one per cent, 546,000), followed by Panjabi (half of one per cent, 273,000) and Urdu (half of one per cent, 269,000).
• A small percentage (22,000) of usual residents reported a sign language as their main language; of these usual residents 70 per cent (15,000) used British Sign Language.
• Thirteen per cent (7.1 million), of usual residents in households in 2011 lived in one person households, the same percentage as in 2001 (13 percent, 6.5 million).
• The percentage of usual residents in households who were part of a one family married couple household, where at least one household member was aged under 65 years, decreased by six percentage points from 50 per cent (25.3 million) in 2001 to 44 per cent (24.4 million) in 2011.
• The percentage of usual residents in households who were part of a one family cohabiting couple household, where at least one household member was aged under 65 years, increased by two percentage points from ten per cent (4.9 million) in 2001 to 12 per cent (6.5 million) in 2011.
• The percentage of usual residents in households who were part of a one family lone parent household, where at least one household member was aged under 65 years, increased by one percentage point from 11 per cent (5.4 million) in 2001 to 12 per cent (6.5 million) in 2011.
• In 2011, seven per cent (3.7 million) of usual residents in England and Wales were 16 to 74 year old full-time students compared to five per cent (2.6 million) in 2001. Of the 16 to 74 year old full-time students in 2011, 29 per cent (1.1 million) reported that they were employed at the time of the census.
• In 2011, the majority of 16 to 74 year olds in employment travelled to work by driving a car or van (58 per cent, 15.3 million). The second most reported method of travel to work for 16 to 74 year olds in employment was by foot (11 per cent, 2.8 million), whilst the third was travel by bus, minibus or coach (seven per cent, 1.9 million).

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication .

Is abortion worldwide becoming more restrictive?

BMJ 2012; 345 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8161 (Published 4 December 2012)

by Sophie Arie, freelance journalist mail@sophiearie.com

Sophie Arie examines the differences in approach to abortion around the world

Abortion has always been a subject for passionate public debate. But recently the temperature has risen, especially in the United States and Ireland. The Republic of Ireland has seen nationwide protests over the death of Savita Halappanavar, who was refused an abortion during a long and painful miscarriage because the fetus was still alive. After the fetus was finally removed she died of septicaemia and organ failure. The debate has also been reopened in the UK, where health minister Jeremy Hunt recently declared a desire to see the limit in England, Wales, and Scotland drop from 24 weeks to 12 and the prime minister expressed an interest in a more modest reduction.

In recent decades, abortion has become legal in all but five countries if a mother’s life is threatened. There has also been a general decline in the numbers of abortions worldwide as contraception has become more widely available. But World Health Organization figures show that the decline has slowed recently. So what’s going on? Is there a general shift towards tighter restrictions? Are people being discouraged from using family planning as populations dwindle? And is that forcing more women to take clandestine routes to terminate unwanted pregnancies?

Ireland

Abortion is illegal under most circumstances in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland: it is allowed only when a mother’s life is in danger or her long term health seriously at risk. In Northern Ireland, the process for approving an abortion is very strict: two doctors must agree independently that the mother’s health is at risk and the abortion must take place within nine weeks of that decision. The NHS carries out between 30 and 50 abortions a year in Northern Ireland,1 and last year 1007 women travelled to other UK countries for abortions.2 In October, Marie Stopes opened the country’s first private abortion clinic in Belfast. The organisation says it plans to work within Northern Ireland’s legal framework, but anti-abortion groups say it aims to widen access to abortion on mental health grounds.3

In the Republic of Ireland the circumstances in which a woman’s life is deemed to be at risk are not entirely clear, and the recent case of Savita Halappanavar highlighted the fact that even when a woman’s life is threatened some doctors or institutions do not consider abortion an option. At least 4149 Irish women made the journey to the UK for abortions in 2011.2 Ireland is currently revising its guidelines on what constitutes a risk to a woman’s health after three women challenged the country’s constitution in the European Court of Human Rights.4 Anti-abortion groups argue that there are always ways to protect a woman’s health without carrying out an abortion and fear that the new regulations will be the first step towards widening access to abortion.

China

China’s single child policy means that there are an estimated 13 million abortions annually—making it the country with by far the highest number.5 The numbers are thought to have been rising since 2003, after a long period of decline, which has been attributed to increased premarital sex, disruptions in access to contraceptive services because of rapid urbanisation, and a lack of condom culture (six million abortions are in women under 25).6 However, the rapid changes in China have brought growing pressure for a change to the way the one child policy is enforced. Activists monitoring the policy say that instructions have been given to local authorities not to carry out late term forced abortions after one case involving a seven month pregnant woman caused national and international outcry this summer.7 India Abortion is legal in India to protect the mother’s health, after rape, in insane women and underaged girls, or if the fetus has serious malformations. It is not legal as a way to avoid giving birth to a girl. There are hefty fines for those offering sex tests or abortions for sex selection. But India’s 2011 census showed a growing imbalance between the numbers of girls and boys aged 0-6 years, which research suggests is due to an increase in selective abortion of female fetuses.8 The government has so far failed to change or control the culture that prizes boys over girls and contributes to India having an estimated 11 million abortions per year. India’s ministry for Women and Child development reportedly wants to introduce fines and even prison terms for entire families who force a woman to abort a female fetus. And one state, Uttar Pradesh has introduced baby hatches where people can leave their unwanted baby girls.

Russia

Russia was the first country to legalise abortion in all circumstances and has the highest rate of abortion worldwide—54/1000 women aged 15-44 (compared with 24/1000 in China). Over the decades the policy has been changed, and recently it has been restricted by the government of Dmitri Medvedev, which has close ties with the Orthodox church and is facing a low birth rate and shrinking population. In October, parliament voted to limit the period for abortion to 12 weeks of gestation and up to 22 weeks in the case of rape.9 There is no time limit if there is a risk to the mother’s life. Abortion providers are now required to spend 10% of advertising costs on warning of the possible dangers to a woman’s health, and it is illegal to describe abortion as safe. The president’s wife has taken a leading role in anti-abortion campaigns alongside leaders of the Orthodox church.

United States

Abortion has always been a subject of heated debate across the US, but in the past decade there has been a frenzied tightening of restrictions in many states that were previously moderate. Overall, according to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 92 new provisions restricting abortion in 2011, compared with 34 in 2005.10 This year there have been at least 39 new restrictions. In 2000, around a third of American women of reproductive age lived in states that were hostile to abortion rights, a third in states that were supportive, and a third in states that stood somewhere in between. By 2011, over half of American women lived in states that were hostile. States found different ways to obstruct women’s access to the procedure including insisting women must first receive counselling against it, restricting public or private insurance coverage, and making it difficult for physicians to obtain supplies of mifepristone, the FDA approved treatment for medical abortions. Seven largely rural states banned telemedicine for abortion in 2011, meaning a doctor has to be with the patient when prescribing the treatment.

In 2010, Nebraska came up with a new argument for restricting the period in which abortion is permitted. The state ruled to ban abortion after 20 weeks on the basis that the fetus can feel pain at that stage. This theory is not backed up by established science,11 but seven other states (Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Louisiana) followed with similar rulings. Arizona restricted abortions beyond 18 weeks in March this year using a similar argument.

Critics argue that these laws are unconstitutional because the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Roe versus Wade held that states could restrict or ban abortion only after fetal viability. It is generally agreed that a fetus could survive outside the womb from 24 weeks at the earliest. Critics also argue that if the concern is for the fetus not to experience pain it would suffice to use anaesthetics. Latin America and Africa

In most of Latin America abortion is either totally banned (Nicaragua, El Salvador) or tightly restricted. Across Africa colonial laws make it legal in only a few situations—usually if a woman’s life is in danger or in the case of fetal abnormality or rape or incest. Social and religious disapproval also contributes to large numbers of women seeking clandestine abortion, which often leads to complications and deaths. WHO estimates that 5.5 million women in Africa have abortions every year, 99% of which are unsafe, and around 36 000 women die from the procedure.12 In Ethiopia, for example, unsafe abortions are thought to account for up to half of maternal deaths. Some 95% of abortions in Latin America are also unsafe.12

In both regions, a few countries have recently decided to relax their laws and make safe abortion services accessible on the basis that criminalising it causes unnecessary deaths. In Kenya, the constitution was changed in 2010 after years of debate over the need to relax the laws and increase provision of safe abortions. Argentina legalised abortion for raped women in March this year and Uruguay legalised abortion up to 12 weeks in October and is providing government funded abortion services. And since 2009, Ethiopia has piloted an apparently successful programme in which trained health workers in one region provide safe medical abortions with misoprostol.

Arab world

Unlike most Muslim countries, Tunisia legalised abortion in the 1970s. The only conditions are that it must be carried out by a qualified practitioner within the first three months of pregnancy. The country’s leaders repressed the population in many ways before the Arab Spring of 2011 but they liberated women by encouraging all sorts of birth control in a bid to control population growth. As a result, the country has the lowest birth rate in the region—2.0 births/1000 women, according to the World Bank’s latest figures.13 It remains to be seen whether the Arab Spring will lead to a relaxing of laws across the Arab world, where abortion is generally available only if a woman’s life is in danger. Data are patchy but according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, in the five years up to 2000, there were 15 million unwanted pregnancies across the Arab world and over seven million abortions in the same period.14 Clandestine abortions seem to be common, and it is estimated that 5% of maternal deaths are due to unsafe abortions. Because of cultural disapproval, most campaign groups are focusing on promoting better awareness and availability of contraception rather than safe abortions.

Iran

Iran has a relatively low abortion rate compared with other countries, probably because its well educated population makes better use of contraception. But the country’s leaders have begun slashing family planning services and appealing for bigger families in a bid to boost the population. It’s not yet clear how much families are heeding the call to procreate, but the changing government position is likely to produce an increase in the numbers of abortions.


Competing interests: All authors have completed the unified competing interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisation that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

References

1. Northern Ireland Health Ministry. Statistics on terminations of pregnancy. 
2. Department of Health. Numbers travelling to UK for abortions from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Table 12a.  
3. Smyth L. Abortion clinic may exploit and break the law, claims opponent. Belfast Telegraph 2012 Oct 18.  
4. Houston M. Ireland looks at ways to bring its abortion law into line with European judgment. BMJ2012;345:e8165.
5. China has more than 13 million abortions a year. CNN 2009 Jul 30.
6. Guttmacher Institute. Facts on induced abortion worldwide. 
7. Chinese govt may seek end to late term forced abortions. LifeNews 2012 14 Sep.
8. Jha P, Kesler MA, Kumar R, Ram F, Ram U, Aleksandrowicz L, et al. Trends in selective abortions of girls in India: analysis of nationally representative birth histories from 1990 to 2005 and census data from 1991 to 2011. Lancet2011;377:1921-8. 
9. Kishkovsky S. Russia enacts law opposing abortion. New York Times 2011 Jul 15.
10. Benson Gold R, Nash E. Troubling trend: more states hostile to abortion rights as middle ground shrinks.
11. Colghan A. 24-week fetuses cannot feel pain. New Scientist 2010 Jun 25.
12. WHO. Unsafe abortions. 5th ed. 2005. 
13. World Bank. Fertility rate. 
14. International Planned Parenthood Federation. Abortion.

UK: Anti-abortion activism escalating, warns clinic targeted by vigil

Britain's largest abortion provider has warned it is facing "a new era" in terms of the actions anti-abortion protesters are prepared to take, after it called police to one of its London clinics where women were being filmed arriving and leaving.

Activists are holding prayer vigils outside the branch of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) on a daily basis as part of the 40 Days for Life campaign, which is affiliated to a US anti-abortion network and whose activities have been endorsed by the more established Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

The campaign – which has said in the past that it uses cameras to protect its members from attack – attempted to distance itself from the incident involving police on Monday, saying the cameraman was not associated with it and meant no harm.

It comes after a West Midlands man pleaded guilty on Saturday to hacking into the BPAS website. The organisation now says it will seek a meeting with the Department of Health to raise concerns about the current climate of anti-abortion activism.

A BPAS spokesperson said recent political initiatives by some MPs had contributed to the changing climate. "The language that has been used by MPs very definitely has consequences in terms of what protesters are now saying to women outside of our clinics," she said.

"A culture seems to be being fostered where protesters (when they are not filming) think it is entirely acceptable to harangue women outside centres and tell them if they go inside they will be lied to. There is certainly evidence of women being really quite distressed and feeling intimidated on what can already often be quite a difficult day for them."

She said BPAS was reluctant to embrace US pro-choice actions such as having volunteers escort women past protests, but the presence of anti-abortion activists outside the BPAS clinic in Bedford Square on one recent day had been such that members of the public had intervened to escort women inside.

On Tuesday, a solitary participant in the 40 Days for Life campaign was reciting the rosary across the road from the clinic. On the ground beside him was a large banner that read: "Praying for an end to abortion and offering help," as well as a box containing a number of small plastic foetuses. At other times, the campaign's own "counsellors" approach women on the street.

The man, who did not want to give his name, said he and others were there to pray for a change of heart on the part of women coming to the clinic.

"I've been here since the morning. I keep my distance and hand out some of our leaflets and magazine. There was a lady here this morning and she said that she was going to keep her baby after all and that made what we are doing over 40 days entirely worthwhile," he said.

The campaign used Twitter to announce this week that it had achieved its first "turnaround" outside the clinic, claiming that a woman named Melanie had decided not to go ahead with her visit. Other turnarounds were said to have taken place in Brighton.

The organisation has called for a big turnout on 30 March when, it said, a vigil would be led by the Catholic bishop of Westminster, Alan Hopes.

Other anti-abortion organisations have held gatherings outside abortion clinics in recent days. Activists said more than 170 people took part in a vigil outside a BPAS clinic in east London on Saturday organised by Helpers of God's Precious Infants UK, a Catholic group, with the support of local churches in the area.

The official representative of the local Catholic bishop, Thomas McMahon, read out a letter of support during an opening mass. In Brighton, Abort 67 held a protest outside a clinic on Tuesday.

At the weekend, James Jeffery, who used the handle "Pablo Escobar", pleaded guilty to two offences under the Computer Misuse Act after hacking into the BPAS site on Thursday. He defaced the front page with an anti-abortion message and the Anonymous logo, and took details of people who had visited the site looking for advice.

Robert Colquhoun, a spokesman for 40 Days for Life, said: "40 Days for Life conducts a peaceful, prayerful and legal vigil in London. The central point of our vigil is to pray for an end to abortion and show that that is a love in community that can help a woman to choose life for her unborn child.

"Since our campaign started in September 2010, we estimate that more than 30 women have chosen life for their unborn children as a result of our campaign through prayer and also through an offer of love, help and support during a difficult time.

"We have a statement of peace that sets the tone and ethos of our prayer vigil as a peaceful and prayerful event. Since our campaign started, we have received a very large number of insults and threats. At times, members of the vigil have filmed themselves in order to protect themselves from these threats. We do not encourage anybody to film members of the public during our campaign."

Source: Ben Quinn, guardian.co.uk, 13 March 2012

Teen pregnancy rate lowest since 1969

The teen pregnancy rate in England and Wales has reached its lowest since 1969, new data shows.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show conceptions in under-18s fell to 34,633 in 2010 compared with 38,259 in 2009, a drop of 9.5%.
Pregnancies in under-16s also went down - by 6.8% to 6,674 in total from 7,158 the previous year.
But the pregnancy rate overall increased, as more women in their 30s and 40s are now having babies.
The overall conception rate for 2010 was 82.3 per thousand women, up from 80.9 in 2009, a rise of 1.7%.
The sharpest rise occurred among women aged 40 and over, rising by 5.2% to nearly 30,000.
This rate has now more than doubled since 1990.
Conception rates also continued to rise among women in their 30s.
Experts say the trends might be driven by the economic recession.
In tough financial times, family may be valued more highly and, as parents could be out of work, they may have more time to spend on child rearing.
But others, like women in their early 20s, may delay having a family due to financial concerns caused by the recession.
Julie Bentley, chief executive of FPA, said the decline in teen pregnancies was to be welcomed.
"The fact that we're seeing the lowest teenage pregnancy figures in England and Wales for over 40 years is because of the dedicated work of professionals in relationship and sex education, contraception and local services. We must do all we can to keep the momentum going," she said.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "It is encouraging to see teenage pregnancy rates continuing to decline. They are now at their lowest level for over 40 years.
"However, we still have high rates compared with many other western European countries. That is why we are giving local councils ringfenced public budgets and the power to build healthier communities."
Labour, who were in power when the drop occurred, said it was proof that its strategy of working to improve sex education was successful and should continue.
Source: Michelle Roberts, BBC News, 28 February 2012

Media inquiry must back ban on sexualised images in media, UK women's groups say

When Lord Justice Leveson launched his inquiry into the ethics of the press, he may not have expected to be confronted with an enlarged photograph of near-naked bottoms. Or to be presented with evidence deemed so explicit it was censored before being circulated to other witnesses.
But a coalition of women's groups argued that such highly sexualised images – presented as part of their submission to the inquiry – were ubiquitous in the UK media, and called on the judge to tackle "relentless" sexism in some areas of the press.
Four groups – Eaves, End Violence Against Women, Object and Equality Now – called on Leveson to back a ban on sexualised images in newspapers, arguing they would not be broadcast on television before the 9pm watershed.
The groups also accused some media outlets of perpetuating myths about rape, which they argued could prevent victims reporting the crime, and called for a tougher regulatory body. "The media creates, reflects and enforces attitudes in society," said Marai Larasi from End Violence Against Women, a coalition of 40 women's organisations. "Those who work in the media should be conscious of this and should actively seek not to reproduce attitudes which condone violence against women or girls."
Papers including the Sun, Daily Star and Sunday Sport "persistently" objectified women, portraying them "as a sum of sexualised body parts", said Anna van Heeswijk, from Object, a lobby group against the objectification of women. "We have to ask ourselves what kind of story does it tell young people when men in newspapers wear suits, or sports gear, are shown as active participants, and women are sexualised objects who are essentially naked or nearly naked," she said.
The groups are want legislation banning pictures of naked or semi-naked women in newspapers, arguing the images would not be allowed in the workplace because of equality legislation, and should not be sold in an "unrestrained" manner at "children's eye-level". Leveson said his powers were limited and such a change would require "rock-solid legislation".
Van Heeswijk highlighted the inquiry's decision to censor some of the images in Object's submission. "They were censored for adults within this inquiry, when in fact they are freely available in mainstream newspapers, which are not age-restricted," she said. She also accused tabloids carrying photographs of semi-naked women of "creating a culture of fear which silences … anybody speaking out against the portrayal of women as sex objects". She cited former MP Clare Short, who was branded a "fat" and "jealous" "killjoy" by the Sun when she spoke out against Page 3.
The reporting of violence against women too often focused on the actions of the victim, rather than the attacker, and perpetuated myths about what constituted a "real rape", said Heather Harvey of Eaves. Women often blamed themselves if they had been drinking, or wearing certain clothes, or if they knew their attacker, she added. "What they have read in the papers [is] in some way responsible for that."
Men were also too often portrayed as "monsters", she said. "[T]hese cases get treated as a one-off […] there's nothing you could do to prevent it. Whereas the position we're coming from, [is] it's not inevitable, it's a cause and a consequence of inequality."..
Asked by Leveson what the difference was between expressly pornographic publications such as Penthouse and the tabloids in question, Van Heeswijk said: "I think you'll find that there isn't a marked difference between the content […] so the difference is how they are regulated."
The groups also called on Leveson to recommend the replacement of the Press Complaints Commission with an independent body "with teeth" that women and women's groups could complain to directly. The reporting of violence against women and girls needs to be more balanced and more context needs to be provided about its frequency, they added. Journalists should also receive training on the "myths and realities" about violence against women and girls, and there should be a code of practice for the way "case studies" are dealt with, the groups said.
Jacqui Hunt, of Equality Now, said the groups did not want to curtail press freedom but wanted the media to behave more responsibly. "The way the media covers women at the moment […] curtails and limits women's freedom of expression and ability to engage in that public debate," she said.

Source: Alexandra Topping, guardian.co.uk, 25 January 2012

Top British hospital "tricked" into giving Italian woman abortion

In a troubling offshoot of medical tourism, an Italian woman flew to Britain to terminate her 28-week-old pregnancy and then flew home to Rimini in north-eastern Italy to expel the dead foetus. She wanted to do this at home for emotional reasons. The unborn child had a non-fatal brain abnormality but abortion is illegal in Italy (really???). She then claimed that she had a miscarriage at 22 weeks.

The case emerged when managers at the Italian hospital discovered that the woman's gynaecologist, Dr Vincenzo Trengia, had falsified the paperwork. Trengia was fired and was charged with breaching Italy's abortion laws. However he was cleared of wrongdoing because he had acted to help the woman.

According to leading obstetricians two-country abortions are "irresponsible" and "extraordinary". The London hospital, Kings College hospital, said in a statement:

"Where cases arise at King's in which a woman from overseas chooses to return to her own country for stage two of the termination of pregnancy, her right to choose is supported. This practice is safe and poses no risk to the woman. We take steps to ensure their care is managed when they return home. We comply at all times with the Abortion Act, as well as the guidelines for termination of pregnancy set out by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This applies to all patients, whether they are from the UK or overseas."

During the court hearing in Italy, the judge was told it was likely that Trengia had referred other women to England to bypass the abortion laws. According to the UK Department of Health there are 25 abortions a year after 24 weeks which are recorded as foeticide without surgical or medical removal of the dead foetus. It is possible that these women also returned to their home country to complete the procedure.

~ The Sunday Times, Oct 9 (looking for an adequate link)
txt arrived from a friend

Abortion counselling amendment defeated in Parliament

Press release
For immediate release

London, 7 September 2011: Today, Members of Parliament have voted against a proposed amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill on abortion counselling. We are pleased it has been recognised that the counselling, provided through organisations such as ours, should continue and is independent and non-directive. Our experience of delivering reproductive health services to more than 100,000 women each year in the UK means we have a place in helping women through what can be a difficult decision.

Tracey McNeill, Vice President & Director of UK and West Europe for Marie Stopes International says, “The debate in the House of Commons raised some very important points which clarify that there is no research or evidence base for the proposed amendment, there is currently an adequate provision of counselling to women that decide they want it, and that providers such as Marie Stopes International are already regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). “We have been, and will continue, to work in partnership with the Department of Health, the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and other organisations to ensure that the counselling offered to women, irrespective of where they access it, is impartial, non-directive and regulated to ensure the highest possible quality.

Same idiots in the UK

Abortion rules to be tightened in biggest shake-up for a generation

The Department of Health is to announce plans for a new system of independent counselling for women before they finally commit to terminating a pregnancy. The move is designed to give women more “breathing space”.

Pro-life campaigners suggest the change could result in up to 60,000 fewer abortions each year in Britain. Last year, 202,400 were carried out.

The plan would introduce a mandatory obligation on abortion clinics to offer women access to independent counselling, to be run on separate premises by a group which does not itself carry out abortions.
...
The vote would be the first on the laws around abortion since the Coalition took power. A previous attempt to change the law — to reduce the time limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks — was defeated in a free vote in 2008.

...
Last year, Marie Stopes and Bpas carried out about 100,000 terminations and were paid about £60 million to do so, mostly through the NHS.

source: www.telegraph.co.uk