COVID-19: Activists claim abortion is a public health issue

Abortion activists have been criticised for claiming that abortion should be classed as a public health issue during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization said governments should class ‘reproductive healthcare’ as an essential service but activists want it to go further by expressly designating abortion as a public health issue.

The CEO of abortion giant Marie Stopes International claimed it would be “immensely helpful as it would help countries to see abortion from a public health perspective”.

‘Repulsive’

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) criticised a joint statement by pro-abortion organisations pushing European governments to roll back abortion safeguards.

The statement, signed by a number of organisations including major abortion provider British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Amnesty International, claims that women should be allowed to take abortion pills at home and that waiting periods between requesting an abortion and having one should be removed.

John Smeaton, SPUC Chief Executive, said it is “a repulsive but predictable attempt to use a global pandemic to further their anti-life, pro-abortion agenda”. He added that the signatories have “a vested interest in expanding abortion wherever possible to promote, safeguard and expand their business”.

“a repulsive but predictable attempt to use a global pandemic to further their anti-life, pro-abortion agenda”

He said the statement is “nothing less than a Trojan horse designed to introduce, by covert and undemocratic means, permanent changes to abortion laws that serve only to benefit the providers themselves”.

Home abortions

Last week, the Republic of Ireland followed Great Britain in introducing home abortions.

The Irish Government’s Department of Health blamed COVID-19 as it announced it would temporarily “dispense with the requirement” for a woman to see her GP for an abortion.

Women less than ten weeks pregnant will now be able to access abortion pills via phone or video call, and have them delivered.

Abortion giant BPAS also announced plans to bypass the NI Executive and deliver abortion pills in Northern Ireland.