Thursday 22nd May 2025
Katie Saxon, Chief Strategic Communications Officer at BPAS:
“As an abortion provider, we know how the police treat women suspected of breaking abortion law. But to see it in black and white after years of criticisms of the way this outdated law is enforced is harrowing.
“This guidance was written at the same time as unprecedented threats to global abortion rights and while Parliament was set to consider decriminalising women. To write it without any public conversation or discussion with experts, to tell police to use women’s period trackers and medical records against them, to tell them to use legally-required notifications of abortion to the Chief Medical Officer to evade the restrictions of medical confidentiality shows just how detached from reality the NPCC are.
“This is the clearest sign yet that women cannot rely on the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, or the courts to protect them. The only way to stop this is to remove women from the criminal law on abortion.”
For further comment, please contact Katherine O’Brien, Head of Campaigns and Communications at BPAS, on 07881 265276 or email katherine.obrien@bpas.org
About BPAS
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, is a charity that sees over 100,000 women a year for reproductive healthcare services including pregnancy counselling, abortion care, miscarriage management and contraception at clinics across Great Britain.
BPAS exists to further women’s reproductive choices. We believe all women should have the right to make their own decisions in and around pregnancy, from the contraception they use to avoid pregnancy right the way through to how they decide to feed their newborn baby, with access to evidence-based information to underpin their choices and high-quality services and support to exercise them.
BPAS also runs the Centre for Reproductive Research and Communication, CRRC. Through rigorous multidisciplinary research and impactful communication, the CRRC aims to inform policy, practice, and public discourse. You can find out more here.