Abortion clinics warned over gender selection
New guidance to warn abortion clinics that gender selection is illegal
Lord Howe, health minister said the rules would be distributed to all providers, while the General Medical Council has been asked to publish guidance on the same matter for all doctors Photo: Geoff Pugh
By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
10:00PM GMT 12 Feb 2014
Abortion clinics are to be issued with new guidance making it "abundantly clear that gender selection is illegal" in the wake of a series of scandals.
Lord Howe, health minister said the rules would be distributed to all providers, while the General Medical Council has been asked to publish guidance on the same matter for all doctors.
The disclosure follows an investigation by The Telegraph which uncovered doctors who were willing to terminate pregnancies for women who said they did not want to have a baby girl.
One of the doctors did so despite likening the practice to "female infanticide" while the other told a woman her job was not to "ask questions".
In September the The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ruled that it would not be in the "public interest" to prosecute the doctors and said the law did not prohibit gender-specific abortions.
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Since then health ministers have sought clarification from the Attorney General.
Last month an investigation suggested that the practice has become so widespread within some communities that it has led to the "disappearance" of between 1,400 and 4,700 females who would be expected to be on the national census.
The Department of Health promised to investigate the matter.
On Wednesday Lord Howe told the House of Lords that there were alternative explanations for the discrepancy, because the figures examined the gender of all children living in households, some of whom left home earlier than others.
But he said guidance will be issued making it categorically clear to abortion providers and doctors that abortion on grounds of gender is illegal.
The minister made the commitment in response to a question from Baroness Knight of Collingtree, who urged the Government to take action to stop the practice of termination of girl babies.
During the debate, former Liberal leader Lord Steel, who introduced the abortion act in 1967, said it needed to be made publicly clear that "whatever happens in other countries, this practice is not acceptable in this country."
Lord Singh of Wimbledon said gender selection abortion was "an extreme form of gender discrimination" which was too prevalent in sub-continent communities.
He said that the Sikh religion is based on equality, but that "culture sometimes gets the better of religion" and said ministers should make provision of funding to sub-continent communities conditional on fair treatment of women.
Earlier this week an investigation by The Telegraph uncovered crisis pregnancy centres wrongly advising women that abortion could increase their risk of breast cancer, give them a propensity to child abuse and mean they were less likely to conceive in future.
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