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More young doctors oppose abortions on ethical grounds
Last updated at 17:22pm on 17.04.07
Rising numbers of doctors are refusing to carry out abortions
The NHS abortion service is heading for a crisis because increasing numbers of doctors refuse to carry out terminations, it was claimed.
There has been a big rise in young medics with 'conscientious objections' to abortion.
The increase has been revealed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
It says there is evidence of a 'slow but growing problem' of young doctors opting out of abortion training on moral grounds.
Some senior doctors have blamed declining interest on the lack of 'glamour' involved in the work.
This has been dubbed 'dinner party syndrome' where doctors don't want to admit to their friends that they do abortions.
In addition, changes to training schedules and reductions in working hours mean trainee doctors are opting out of a branch of specialist work that may not enhance their career prospects.
RCOG spokesman Kate Guthrie, who is head of abortion services in Hull, said: "You get no thanks for performing abortions, you get spat on. Who admits to friends at a dinner party that they are an abortionist? It is not a sexy area - it is a bog standard area of women's care.
"There is an increasing number of young doctors who are not participating in the training. The college and the Department of Health are really worried."
She said abortion care must become part of core training in a new curriculum being introduced in August, although it should not be compulsory.
The college was not able to produce any figures to back up its claims, however.
But the situation has prompted abortion groups to call for a change in the law which would allow nurses to carry out early surgical and medical abortions - procedures which are technically simple.
A spokesman for Marie Stopes, Britain's biggest private provider of abortions, said this would dramatically increase provision.
Spokesman Tony Kerridge said: "Ninety per cent of terminations take place before 12 weeks when they are simple, low-tech procedures.
"It's not glamorous work for doctors which may partly explain the increasing difficulty in recruitment over the last five or six years, and younger people no longer understand or recall the time when abortion was illegal.
"Our research published in The Lancet shows nurses and paramedics in Vietnam and South Africa do the work extremely successfully, but they are not allowed to here. This must change."
Marie Stopes currently carries out one in three British abortions, with two-thirds funded by NHS contracts. Mr Kerridge said surveys show one in five GPs oppose abortiontion but most do not let it stand in the way of caring for their patients.
Julia Millington of the ProLife Alliance, agreed that doctors are turning away from the work on moral grounds.
She said: "We have been hearing for some time now that young doctors, in particular, do not want to work in this field. Those choosing to go into medicine presumably do so because they want to cure sickness and disease not end the lives of innocent human beings.
"Public and Parliamentary opinion on the abortion issue has shifted in recent years and this is further evidence that the law must be reviewed."
But the British Pregnancy Advisory Service said it was not aware of any documented rise in conscientious objections where a doctor refuses to work in abortion or IVF services on the grounds of moral conviction.
Chief executive Ann Furedi said "The current crop of medical students have not themselves seen women dying slowly and painfully after self -induced and unsafe aborneurosurgeryin the UK- but if they went to the many countries overseas where abortion is still illegal or only available to rich people, they would see this.
"Abortion is an absolutely essential, life-saving part of medical care - it may not be the most glamorous medical speciality on the face of it, compared to stem cell research or - but it is seen as heroic work by the women that it helps."
Dr Kate Paterson, a consultant obstetrician working in abortion care, said: "There are an awful lot of doctors already working helping women to get pregnant in the NHS and in the private IVF sector.
"There are a hell of a lot less who want to help women when they are pregnant and can't cope.
"There is a desperate need for this kind of work and women can be in really extreme situations."
A Department of Health spokesman said "We are aware that a minority of doctors choose to opt out from performing abortions, as they are legally entitled to do.
"However, this is not preventing women from accessing abortion services. The statistics show that the number of abortions being performed remains stable year on year and that more abortions are being performed earlier."
She said the Department of Health would be discussing the issue of training with the college.
Reader views (12)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I'll bet if you pressed those one in five doctors who claim to oppose abortion on moral grounds, you'd find more 'dinner party syndrome' than actual moral issues. Too bad. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it...else you're just inviting a new era of back alleys and coat hangers.
- Amanda, Chicago, USA
I think that it is unnecessary to end an unborn child's life, only because the mother is irresponsible to use some form of contraception. It is not the child's fault.
- Sarina La Belle No, USA
Trouble is more condoms and contraception lead to more abortions as they contribute to promiscuity levels.
- John, Paisley, Scotland
Ellie, you need to wake up, condoms are not expensive, and there is contraception available anywhere you care too look, it's not a case of no uterus no opinion, more like uterus no brain for some women !
- Brian, Swindon
You can not continue to expect that the NHS gives everything for free! Those days are finished. And that a doctor does not want to kill I think is fair too!
- Georgie, London
Bravo! It's nice to hear about doctors taking a stand for life!
- Patrick, Indiana, USA
Having an abortion is never taken lightly, but having unprotected sex is, it really is unbelievable with all the info on std's and aids as well as the advertising about contraception, that unwanted pregnancies are on the up.
To easy to destroy the unborn, to hard to use a condom?
- Brian, Swindon
Praise God!
- Mj Turner, USa
Does anyone seriously think that when a girl/woman hads an abortion that this is done lightly, without any thought of the consequences! This will lead to a surge in backstreet abortions. What's required is better sex education for our children and for condoms to be free not the exbortant prices that they are. No uterus, no opinion!
- Ellie, London
With waiting lists for operations and funding constraints on treatment it looks as if there will be a waiting list for NHS-funded abortions. 75% hip replacements in Britain are done privately, but 80% abortions are paid for by the NHS.
- Tomtom, Leeds England
Fantastic news. Perhaps we can get the NHS into a life giving service rather than the death service it was becoming.
Why any doctor would train to then terminate life is beyond me.
- Bob, London
Whatever your stance on abortion it has to be carried out within the legal guidelines. Abortion is not a method of contraception and can only be performed where two doctors agree that there is a serious health risk to either mother or child. Inconvenience cannot be considered as a mental health risk and as the vast majority of abortons are performed for the sake of inconvenience I cannot blame any doctor who refuses to perform what he/she considers to be an unjustified abortion. Teenagers have always had sex but not with the gay abandon they do today. Perhaps this move will reintsate some of the morals our children are lacking these days.
- Jane, London
