This month, fifty years on from the legalisation of abortion in England in 1967, the Care Quality Commission[1] (CQC) published the results of a general inspection of the Marie Stopes Clinic in Maidstone[2]. The report suggests that staff at the establishment were under pressure to “encourage” women to have an abortion.
Indeed, staff displayed “concern” regarding their “appraisals” which led to “bonuses” distributed as “performance indicators“: “patients less than five weeks and three days pregnant who decided not to go ahead with the abortion were called back by a member of staff to arrange a new appointment“. The report denounces a “culture that is counter-intuitive” and which disregards patient choice.
The clinic’s General Manager, Richard Bentley, has “vehemently denied” all of the accusations. The report, has however, triggered a reaction from MP, Fiona Bruce: “It is shocking to hear that, at what is often such a difficult and stressful moment, abortion clinics are taking advantage of pregnant women by seeking to perform as many abortions as they can, rather than giving genuine, non-directional counselling and advice“.
[1] The British Care Quality Commission.
[2] “An abortion centre in a rural town”.
BioEdge, Xavier Symons (21/10/2017)