A senior health expert has welcomed proposed changes to Jersey’s abortion law that would let islanders take pills to terminate their pregnancy at home – after branding the current requirement to take them in front of a doctor as “patronising”.
Dame Clare Gerada, a non-executive director on the board overseeing the Health Department, made the comments during a Health Advisory Board meeting today.
She said: “A medical termination [when abortion is carried out using drugs] is a very simple procedure which patronises women by making them go to the doctor to do it and bleed on their way home.”
The proposed changes to the island’s decades-old law would also remove the requirement for women to prove they are in “distress” to access an abortion, and reduce the number of required consultations from two doctors to one healthcare professional – including nurses and midwives.
If the updates are approved, the island’s legal abortion limit could also rise to 21 weeks – but, in practice, abortions beyond 12 weeks will still not be available in Jersey due to a lack of facilities and specialist staff.
Dame Clare also raised concerns about the language used when discussing abortion, particularly the term “social abortion” – which is used to describe an elective abortion, rather than one deemed medically essential.
“There’s no reason to use the word ‘social’ – it is so derogatory,” she said.
“It sounds like going down the pub. It suggests the decision is trivial when it is not.”
You can read a summary of the proposed changes to the abortion law here, and share your views here until Monday 14 April.
Responses to this public consultation will help inform the draft law presented to the States Assembly at the end of the year.
