A paramedic has been struck off after secretly injecting his lover with abortion drugs during a sexual encounter.
Stephen Doohan, who was married at the time, began an affair with his victim after they met in Ibiza. Doohan later separated from his wife and it soon became apparent that his new lover was pregnant.
Despite agreeing together to keep the baby, Doohan crushed up some abortion drugs and secretly injected them into his lover while they were having sex.
The woman later had a miscarriage and suspected that Doohan may have done something. Doohan convinced her to lie about what happened and apparently tried to smooth things over with a barrage of gifts.
However, the woman complained to the ambulance service, for which Doohan worked, who began an investigation and informed the police.
Doohan pleaded guilty to two charges and was and was jailed for 10 and a half years. He has now been struck off as a result of a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service hearing, which he did not attend. The hearing ruled that Doohan caused “ongoing emotional and psychological harm” to his victim.
The case bears similarities to that of Stuart Worby, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison after obtaining abortion drugs via the controversial “pills-by-post” scheme and giving them to his pregnant girlfriend without her knowledge.
The woman, who wanted to keep what would have been her first baby, has been left infertile.
In February 2025 Worby’s sentence was increased to 17 years after it was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
The pills-by-post scheme has been criticised for being open to other abuses. Introduced during the Covid lockdowns, the scheme dispensed with the need for a woman seeking an abortion to have an in-person consultation with a medical professional. In one case, a woman gave false information over the phone and aborted her 8-month-old baby, well beyond the legal limit and at an increased risk to herself.
Last month, peers in the House of Lords voted down an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would have reinstated in-person consultations prior to having an at-home abortion.
