British Doctors Send Women to Spain for Late Abortions.

Doctors working with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the country's largest abortion provider, refer women seeking abortions over the legal limit of 24 weeks to a clinic in Spain, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The British Department of Health has launched an investigation into BPAS's late-abortion referrals. "We are still investigating the matter of BPAS referring women overseas for late abortions," a spokeswoman told the Mercury. "We are hoping a report will be made to [Health Secretary] John Reid before Christmas."

BPAS, which is funded by the National Health Service, provides more than 80% of abortions in Britain between 20-23 weeks gestation, the Press Association reported. British law bans abortion after 24 weeks except for fetal disability or danger to the mother.

If women consult BPAS for a late abortion, the Telegraph found that they are referred to Clinica Ginemedex in Barcelona, Spain, as a matter of BPAS "policy." "They do over 24 weeks in Barcelona," the Telegraph reporter was told by a BPAS adviser. "I know that we refer people over our usual term of 23 weeks to them. I know they do over 24 weeks."

However, under Spanish law, abortions are illegal over 22 weeks except for medical danger to mother or child. When asked by the Telegraph how the clinic gets around Spanish law, a Clinica Ginemedex staff member named Jimena said, "If you have a normal pregnancy but still you want to do it, what we do is to put on the paper that there was a gynaecological emergency, and that is [covered] under the law."

Instead of apologizing for their actions, BPAS officials went on the offensive, calling for the government to change the laws limiting late abortion. "If women are to plan their families they need access to abortion as a back-up to contraception," BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi told the Press Association. "Abortion is safe, it's legal, and it's our job to make it acceptable and easy for women."

Pro-lifers were outraged at BPAS's call to change the laws it has allegedly broken on a regular basis. "For BPAS to suggest that late abortion should be more readily available is rather like someone accused of theft saying that shoplifting should be made easier," said Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.