BBC poll prompts call for action on coerced abortions

A BBC-commissioned poll has prompted calls for the Health Secretary to treat forced abortion as a public health concern.

The poll on reproductive coercion, conducted by Savanta ComRes earlier this year, revealed that 15 per cent of UK women aged 18-44 had faced pressure to abort their unborn child when they did not want to. It also stated that five per cent had faced physical violence intended to induce a miscarriage.

In response, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has launched a petition calling on the Health Secretary to investigate abortion coercion.

‘Domestic abuse’

The petition states: “This data is shocking – and shows that coercion in abortion decisions is an urgent and immediate threat to women’s health and wellbeing, and is an often unrecognised form of domestic abuse.

“Following this, we call on the Health Secretary to urgently commission research into the area of abortion coercion, and in so doing recognise coerced abortion as a priority for health and social policy moving forward.”

for many women, abortion isn’t a choice at all

SPUC’s Public Policy Manager Alithea Williams said: “Ever since the Roe v Wade verdict was handed down, a woman’s right to choose has been a hot topic of conversation.

“However, something that many pro-abortion advocates aren’t willing to talk about is that for many women, abortion isn’t a choice at all.”

Forced abortion

In 2014, a British mother of Pakistani origin revealed to The Independent that she had two abortions because her husband did not want girls.

Samira – not her real name – said she was “really, really happy” when she was told her unborn child was a girl, but her husband did not share her joy and the couple arranged an abortion.

Although she did not want the abortion, she felt she was unable to make the decision on her own, “because if I’d made that choice and gone ahead with the baby” then her husband “would actually end the pregnancy himself”.