Monday 6th October 2025
Heidi Stewart, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, said:
“This important study from Scotland adds to the already extensive body of evidence that at-home medical abortion between 10+0 and 11+6 weeks gestation is safe and effective.
“Yet, as the authors note, this is a care pathway that cannot be provided in all of the UK because of our highly restrictive abortion law. In Northern Ireland, at-home abortion care is not permitted at any gestation, and in England and Wales the current law stipulates that this care can only be provided up to 9+6 weeks gestation. This means that thousands of women each year in the UK are being compelled to attend hospital appointments and undergo surgical procedures when, as this research makes clear, they could be treated at home.
“When the abortion law was first passed in 1967, it was designed to protect and improve women’s health. Nearly 60 years later, this legislation is restricting our ability to innovate and develop services in line with clinical practice. It is time for parliament to modernise our out-of-date legal framework, and finally allow healthcare professionals to give all women in the UK the best possible care, including the choice of an at-home medical abortion care throughout the first trimester.”
The full study, Safety and efficacy of early medical abortion at home between 10+0 and 11+6 weeks' gestation: a retrospective review, was published in the BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health and is available online here.
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.