If You Don't Want to Provide Abortions, Don't Go Into Healthcare
5 September 2019
A Vermont nurse’s objection to providing an abortion shows we need to be more discerning about who is worthy of serving the public.
An article written by Monica R McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a programme of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, all at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, published on the VICE website.
Webinar on 'The Low-Stim Abortion: Managing Pain and Anxiety in Abortion Care’
12 September 2019
On Wednesday 4 September 2019, the latest BSACP webinar was held with Dr Carmen Landau speaking about ‘The low-stim abortion: managing pain and anxiety in abortion care’.
The setting of abortion care creates expectations of pain and anxiety for many patients. Abortion providers develop a variety of skills to help their patients feel more comfortable, and in this session we will discuss non-pharmacological and pharmacological techniques, including trauma-informed care modalities, speculum placement strategies, paracervical block variations, and other ways to reduce the more challenging sensations common during abortion procedures.
Carmen Landau is a Physician and Associate Medical Director at Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA where she provides abortion care in all trimesters. Advanced abortion care, pain management for drug-using patients, and caring for survivors of trauma are her areas of particular interest.
Webinars are a membership benefit of BSACP and are open/free of charge to members. Non-members may join BSACP at: https://bsacp.org.uk/about-bsacp/membership/
NB. A recording of this webinar and the resultant Q&A session is available in the members’-only area of the BSACP website.
Joint Briefing: Reform of Abortion Law in Northern Ireland
29 August 2019
The British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP) were pleased to support this briefing for the House of Lords coordinated by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG), and are delighted that Parliament voted in favour of legalising abortion in Northern Ireland.
Joint briefing – Reform of abortion in Northern Ireland
Jonathan Lord (BSACP Co-Chair)
Reflections on the RCOG World Congress 2019, London, UK, 17–19 June 2019
15 July 2019
I am not an obvious person to be invited to attend the World Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. For one thing, I’m neither an obstetrician nor a gynaecologist. I’m not even a doctor. But I do feel passionately about reproductive rights, which has led me to sit as the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Representative on the British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP) Council, and it was in that role I was invited to attend the Congress. For the first time, each ‘stream’ of conference presentations began with a brief presentation by a patient representative, introducing the lived experience of the service user of that area of medicine.
I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to patients, abortion providers, academics who research reproductive health, and campaigning groups. I heard so many stories, of good and bad experiences and, most strikingly, of women who are robbed of their autonomy over their bodies and forced to continue unwanted and sometimes unsafe pregnancies by law and insufficient provision. Condensing all I heard into a 5-minute presentation [see separate blog] was a challenge, but the common theme was the chilling effect that the continuing criminalisation of abortion has across the UK, restricting doctors from performing a medical service and pregnant women from making the best choice for their particular circumstances. Of course, for women in Northern Ireland the effect is greatest, because the exceptions permitting abortion in the 1967 Abortion Act do not apply there, and only if there will be a grave or fatal outcome to the pregnancy is abortion permitted.
The presentations in the ‘abortion stream’, organised by the BSACP, were all guided by the broader theme of ‘listening to women’. Professor Sharon Cameron introduced new research from Europe and the USA on advances in early medical abortion, working on ways to minimise the disruption of medical abortion to the lives of women seeking early abortion. Laura MacIsaac continued on a similar theme in her presentation on cervical priming prior to abortion, minimising the number of clinic visits and discomfort for women while ensuring safety. Finally, Professor Emily Jackson offered a legal perspective on decriminalisation of abortion, explaining what legislative change is needed and suggesting what strategies would bring about that change.
The ‘stream’ then continued with abstract presentations that introduced new trials and international developments in abortion care.
The conference room quickly filled up so that it was standing room only, with over 100 attendees present from around the world. Such was the demand that the presentations were streamed via video link to an adjoining room for those unable to find space in the main room.
In the afternoon I was able to attend sessions on other aspects of gynaecology. Although I was afraid of feeling like a non-medical ‘muggle’, I found that the presentations by the British Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology overlapped both with issues of consent in abortion but also with my research, as a PhD student in law and sociology, specialising in children’s rights. Everywhere I was struck by the friendliness and openness of the obstetrics and gynaecology doctors I met, and the commitment to exploring perspectives on obstetrics and gynaecology outside the medical.
Thanks to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG) Women’s Voices Involvement Panel who organised the patient representative presentations and BSACP for inviting me. Thanks above all to everyone who shared their stories and the stories of the women on whose behalf they were campaigning.
Charlotte Kelly, Patient and Public Involvement Representative on BSACP Council
Speech Given by BSACP's PPI Representative at the RCOG World Congress 2019, London, UK, 17–19 June 2019
15 July 2019
My name is Charlotte Kelly and I am the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Representative on BSACP Council. I’m speaking here today in order to offer the perspective of patients using abortion care.
Abortion is still illegal. It is illegal in every part of the United Kingdom, and all Crown Dependencies, with the exception of the Isle of Man. The 1967 Abortion Act, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, but not to Northern Ireland, stipulates specific circumstances where a woman and her doctors will not be prosecuted for ending a pregnancy. This depends both on whether doctors believe that the pregnant woman falls into one of the exempt categories, and the time of gestation.
Research shows that most women, particularly young women, assume that they can have an abortion in the same way they can exercise their autonomy over other healthcare choices. In fact, the stigma and pressure on clinicians caused by criminalisation shapes all women’s experiences of abortion care.
For women in Northern Ireland, the effect is greatest, because The 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland. Only if there will be a grave or fatal outcome to the pregnancy is abortion permitted. As a result any Northern Irish woman who wishes to end her pregnancy must travel to a clinic in England or else illegally obtain medication for a medical abortion. Anonymous testimony submitted to Alliance for Choice gives an insight into the effect of this. One woman who travelled to England spoke about how she lied to the abortion care staff that she would rest in a hotel after her abortion and instead took a flight back to Northern Ireland the same night, because she couldn’t afford the cost of a night in the hotel. Unable to afford the cost of travel, another woman remembers two occasions of “young women in their school uniforms lying on their sides asking her friends to ‘boot her in the stomach’ a few times because she thought her period was late”.
In the rest of the United Kingdom, there is also a shortage of National Health Service (NHS) providers of abortion, particularly abortion after the first trimester. There are only three NHS services which offer treatment up to the legal limit of 24 weeks on all grounds, and they are all in London. This is particularly a problem for medically complex women, who cannot be treated in a private clinic but who need to have their procedure in a NHS hospital. In 2017, a woman with a heart condition who had been subject to domestic violence presented at 22 weeks, and was unable to secure an appointment for an abortion. She had to continue that pregnancy against her will, as did 45 other women in 2016 and 2017. One woman who presented to bpas at 23+1 weeks, and for whom they were unable to secure a termination, said she would drink bleach to terminate.
Of course, as abortion care is part of broader obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) medicine, so there are some factors which make good patient care which are common across the specialty. Speaking to one woman whose general anaesthetic failed and who was conscious during her surgical abortion, she stressed the need for acknowledgement of error, accountability and provision of proper aftercare. There is a need for empathy, for non-judgment, and for women to have sufficient time after their abortion to fully recover in a supported environment.
Women need choice and laws that trust them to control their own bodies. They need doctors to be their allies in this campaign wherever in the world this is challenged. We need more doctors able to provide termination of pregnancy services and to be supported by their colleagues in the conviction that providing abortion care is not morally dubious but rather an essential service as part of O&G.
Charlotte Kelly, Patient and Public Involvement Representative on BSACP Council
Nominations Invited for Positions on BSACP Council - Deadline Extended to 2 September 2019
***NOMINATIONS NOW CLOSED***
5 August 2019
Two positions on BSACP Council are open for nominations. All nominations should be submitted on the approved nomination form, with two proposers who are current, paid-up BSACP members.
- Treasurer
- Regional Representative – Northern Ireland
BSACP members who wish to stand for either of these Council positions must submit completed nomination forms to admin@bsacp.org.uk by Monday 2 September 2019. A ballot will be organised for those positions that have more than one nomination.
Please refer to the relevant job description for each vacancy.
Treasurer: BSACP Treasurer Job Description 01122017
Regional Representative – Northern Ireland: BSACP Regional Representative Job Description 01122017
Nomination form: BSACP Council Elections 2019 nomination form 20082019
Notes
- Members can apply for a position on Council after they have been a member for a minimum of one year. An individual may only apply for one Council position at each Election.
- The position of Chair/Co-Chair should be filled by an individual who has already served on BSACP Council.
- Nominated individuals for Regional Representative positions must work within the relevant regional boundary. Regional Representatives may be appointed according to voting from members working within the relevant regional boundaries.
Sam Rowlands (BSACP Secretary)
Janie Foote
BSACP Administrator
Tel: +44 (0)1243 538106
E-mail: admin@bsacp.org.uk
Website: www.bsacp.org.ukJanie Foote
NICE Quality Standards Advisory Committee - Termination of Pregnancy Services
5 August 2019
NICE are seeking to recruit a committee member from an independent abortion provider to help them to develop the NICE Quality Standard on Abortion Care. It will involve attending two half-day meetings in Manchester with some reading and feedback in between. All the details are at the link below. The closing date for applications is 5.00pm on Thursday 15 August 2019.
Please share this announcement with relevant colleagues. Specific queries about this role should be addressed to Melanie Carr (contact details below).
Melanie Carr
Technical Analyst, Quality Team, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
Tel: 44 (0)161 870 3825 Web: http://www.nice.org.uk
Submissions Invited for the Inaugural James Trussell Essay Prize: ‘Removing Barriers to Safe Abortion’
27 June 2019
Submissions are invited for a new annual award, the ‘James Trussell Essay Prize’, jointly sponsored by the British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP) and bpas (British Pregnancy Advisory Service).
The ‘James Trussell Essay Prize’ (value £150.00) will be awarded to the author of an essay on a relevant topic. The essay theme for the inaugural award is ‘Removing Barriers to Safe Abortion’. This award is specifically aimed at trainees/students (including undergraduates/postgraduates in medicine, allied healthcare professions, social sciences, etc.), and it recognises the contribution made to this field by the late Professor James Trussell (1949–2018), eminent scientist and advocate for women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
Instructions for essay preparation and submission are here: James Trussell Essay Prize 2019 instructions 26062019
Essays submission deadline: Tuesday 10 September 2019. ***SUBMISSION DEADLINE PASSED***
The prize-winning author will be informed by e-mail on or by Tuesday 1 October 2019. The author of the winning essay will be announced and the prize awarded at the Joint RSM/BSACP Conference entitled ‘Launching NICE Guidance – New Frontiers in Abortion Care’ to be held at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) on Wednesday 16 October 2019.
RCN Nursing Education in TOP Services Survey
26 June 2019
BSACP has been asked to publicise this RCN initiative with which two BSACP Council members are actively involved. BSACP members are encouraged to either personally participate in this survey (if they are RCN members) and/or alternatively share information about the survey with colleagues/relevant members of their clinical team.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wants to support better health care education to enable all nurses, midwives, nursing associates and health care assistants working in termination of pregnancy (TOP) services to provide the best care possible for their patients. To achieve this the RCN wants to establish what the current education provision is across the NHS and independent sector in England, Wales and Scotland and as part of this work would be grateful if you could take the time to complete a survey: https://surveys.rcn.org.uk/s/20IIQ/
Survey responses will help agree pathways and suggestions for further educational requirements within the current service provision across the NHS and independent sector, as well as exploring what changes to continuing professional development might be required should the current legislation on termination of pregnancy change.
The survey will close at 11.00pm on Sunday 14 July 2019 and the results of the survey will be published as a report on the RCN website towards the end of 2019.
Carmel Bagness (Professional Lead Midwifery & Women’s Health)
'Abortion Across Borders' - New Book Reviewed by Sam Rowlands
8 June 2019
Sam Rowlands reviews a new book entitled ‘Abortion Across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services’ which is all about travelling for abortion or, as the authors of the chapter on Ireland prefer to call it, “reproductive mobility and restrictions thereof”, which is currently a very topical subject. Read Sam’s review here: Book Review – Abortion Across Borders