MPs FIGHT BILL ON ABORTION AGENCIES

By a Staff Reporter
MPs opposed to a Bill to license abortion referral agencies, which it is claimed will give abortion brokers a veneer of respectability, introduced 36 amendments during the Bill's committee stage on Wednesday.
The Private Member's Bill, introduced by Mr Michael Grylls, Conservative member for Chertsey, Surrey, would have gone straight on tb its third and final reading if Mrs Jill Knight, Conservative member for Edgbaston, had not insisted on the Committee Stage.
Mrs Phyllis Bowman, spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the Bill as it stands "will simply give a respectable veneer to abortion brokers, who have brought the whole of the British medical profession into disrepute."
Mrs Bowman said: "Licensing abortion clinics has had no effect whatsoever in stopping flagrant abuses, despite the fact that the Department of Health and Social Security is supposed to carry out checks on their activities."
She asked how Mr Grylls could believe his Bill would in any way lead pregnancy advisory services to act in accordance with the will of Parliament, which had stated it was not in favour of abortion on request, which these services "of their own admission now supply."
Last year "charitable" pregnancy advisory services, as they term themselves, were responsible for 39,000 referrals for abortions, she said, one-third of all registered abortions carried out in private clinics. She said over £l+ million was paid for these operations.
Mrs Bowman said Mr Grylls's Rill first won a hearing at a ballot of Private Members' Bills, but lost its chance with the last election. But another opportunity was found to present it and to everyone's surprise, unlike most private Bills, the first two readings were completed in a fortnight. The fact that time was found so quickly for it suggested it had unofficial Government and DHSS backing, she said.
One of the amendments SPUC would like to see written into Mr Grylls's Bill is that abortions be registered on the patients' medical notes. Mrs Bowman said: "As the law stands at present, abortion is the only operation which is not required to be entered on a patient's medical notes."
Experience had shown that subsequent pregnancies ran far greater risks after a patient had an abortion and recording abortions would tell doctors that extra care might be required during pregnancies. It would also allow proper follow-up care after an abortion, which is sometimes required, she added.
In Bradford almost 600 people have signed a petition protesting against Mr Grylls's Bill, Mrs Bowman said. Discussions were still going on at the Committee stage at time of going to press, but MPs supporting SPUC's stand were hopeful the Bill would be substantially amended or dropped.