North's women 'must be offered counselling before abortion'
Women in the North considering an abortion must be offered counselling, it was claimed today.
With the procedure becoming more common in the UK, Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP called for the consequences to be spelled out to pregnant women.
A motion in Westminster supported by the Lagan Valley MP highlighted efforts to raise awareness of alternatives like adoption of unwanted offspring.
It: "Acknowledges that the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) on July 10 passed a motion acknowledging that abortion can be a psychologically traumatic process for women, urges the BMA to campaign for increased counselling and support for women before and after abortion and that this is therefore now official BMA policy."
It also: "Commends the amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to ensure that women considering abortion are offered counselling and are also adequately informed about the health consequences of abortion, of alternatives to abortion, including adoption, and of help available should they decide to continue with their pregnancies."
Abortion remains illegal in the North, except in limited circumstances when serious risk is posed to the mother's life, or her physical or mental health.
Earlier this month, DUP MP Iris Robinson, wife of First Minister Peter Robinson, hit out at pro-choice campaigners demanding relaxation of the law in the North.
She said any change to the law to bring it in line with the rest of the UK would be opposed by Christians.
Each year, many women travel to Britain to have the procedure, legalised there 40 years ago.
A joint letter has been sent to every Westminster MP, signed by the leaders of the DUP, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and UUP opposing any change in the North.
Pro-abortion campaigners have said the cost of travel and the procedure meant some vulnerable women were falling into debt.
Almost 1,300 women travelled to Britain from the North for abortions in 2006, according to the charity Marie Stopes International, whose clinics saw about half of them.
British prime minister Gordon Brown was forced to offer a free vote in the Commons earlier this year on three controversial areas of the Embryology Bill to avert a rebellion by Catholic MPs.
A Conservative amendment on time limits for abortions in Britain was on the Bill.
