A bill that would require the government to produce an annual report on complications resulting from abortions in England has been proposed in the House of Lords.
The Complications from Abortions (Annual Report) Bill was proposed by Conservative peer Lord Moylan. Lord Moylan’s bill was chosen for debate as a result of a random ballot.
While it is rare for a Private Member's Bill originating in the Lords to become law, with less than one per cent making it onto the statute books, it is possible, with the last instance being the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.
Despite this, campaigners hope that the bill simply being introduced will draw attention to serious issues, in this case the potential underreporting of abortion complications by abortion providers, who arguably have a vested interest in keeping such figures down.
Right To Life UK have noted there is a significant discrepancy between statistics on abortion complications from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the Abortion Notification System (ANS), the latter being based on data from abortion providers.
Lord Moylan’s bill is intended to improve the collection of data and so better inform policy decisions on abortion.
A review by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) found that from 2017-2021 the HES reported a complication rate of 4.06 per thousand abortions, a figure that was more than double the 1.52 figure from the ANS.
Part of the reason for this is that abortion providers rarely recorded complications that affected a woman after being discharged following an abortion.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, commented, “This bill is a much-needed step forward in improving transparency around abortion complications.
"Abortion complication rates are almost certainly higher than has previously been reported in official statistics, as a Government review revealed.
"This bill proposes a common-sense change to policy that MPs and peers, regardless of where they stand on the issue of abortion, should support.
“The government needs to urgently introduce measures to ensure that abortion complications data is accurately collected and reliably reported on.”
