HC Deb 13 April 1970 vol 799 cc1015-9
31. Mr. St. John-Stevas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in view of recent developments, he will now make a statement of policy of Her Majesty's Government on the working of the Abortion Act.

Mr. Crossman

I see no need for such a statement at present.

Mr. St. John-Stevas

Since even the sponsors of the Abortion Act have put forward proposals for remedying abuses resulting from it, is there not an overwhelming case for having an independent and impartial inquiry? If there is nothing to hide, why resist this suggestion?

Mr. Crossman

I have replied more than once to similar questions. The real question is how long we should allow the Abortion Act to run before we have gathered sufficient experience to see whether or not it needs amending. It is not my view at present that it has run for long enough. Indeed, consider today. I am just at the end of the second year of running the licence system for private nursing homes. The hon. Gentleman must await our decision on this and see what happens.

Mr. John Lee

Is my right hon. Friend aware that some of us are getting tired of this continual sniping at the Abortion Act, which many of us regard as a very important social measure? Is he aware of the considerable correlation between the rate of illegitimacy and criminality and that in so far as there are more abortions and, therefore, fewer unwanted births, the rate of crime may be reduced?

Mr. Crossman

I would not like to give a judgment on the latter part of that supplementary question for fear that I would get into statistical trouble. As to the first part, I agree with my hon. Friend provided that we understand that we are a country which has very inadequate family planning. I would not like it to be thought that abortion is any substitute for adequate family planning.

35. Mr. William

Hamilton asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further steps he has taken or intends to take to prevent abuses arising from the operation of the Abortion Act.

Mr. Crossman

I have written to private nursing homes approved under the Act asking for certain assurances which I require before considering re-approval, and I am also making more detailed inquiries of a small number of approved places which have been the subject of complaints.

Mr. Hamilton

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that the abuses which undoubtedly occur arise principally from the desire for maximising profit by a disreputable section of the medical profession? Would he agree, however, that there are abuses on the other side; notably the case which I have drawn to his attention, of a lady who was refused an abortion, as a result of which she had a mongoloid child? What investigation has he undertaken into that particular case?

Mr. Crossman

There are two parts to my hon. Friend's supplementary question. The first concerns abuses in the private sector and the second concerns abuses in the public sector. In connection with the private sector, I agree that the major factor is an attempt to have a very large number of cases done at a single hospital with perhaps a possible absence of notification and also, perhaps, with overcrowding. In regard to the public sector, I have nothing to state.

Mrs. Knight

In view of the Minister's remarks a few moments ago about the "conscience clause", followed immediately by his misgivings, as he put it, about the number of abortions being carried out in certain areas, could we have a categoric assurance, that the "conscience clause" is not to be removed from the Act?

Mr. Crossman

I can give that assurance. It is an essential part of the Act.

Mrs. Knight

Good.

Mr. Crossman

What I am saying is that inevitably the operation of the clause creates serious problems of regional inequality and that these problems bear more heavily on the hospitals which are doing their share as against those which are not. That is the result of the working of the "conscience clause". The conscientious should, I think, take notice of the consequences of their actions.

Mrs. Renée Short

Would my right hon. Friend bear in mind that it is from those areas where the consultants are not carrying out the spirit of the Act that the customers for the private clinics come? Is he aware that it is those women who are compelled to come to London and seek private terminations at high fees? Does he not think that it would be a good idea if he were to set up an inspectorate of the private nursing homes that are to be re-licensed at the end of this month and cross them off the list if they are contravening good medical practice?

Mr. Crossman

On the point about the inspectorate, I have made arrangements now to have inspections, not regular ones because they are not vital, but inspections at any moment without warning. I have written to each of the homes requiring them to give me an assurance that such officers will be accepted into the home. As for the other part of the question, I find it difficult to be as categoric as my hon. Friend. She is interpreting the spirit of the Act wrongly. She spoke of doctors who are not operating according to the spirit of the Act; but the Act lays it down that they are free, for conscience reasons, not to operate.

Mrs. Short

They should pass their patients on.

Mr. St. John-Stevas

While accepting fully the sincerity of the right hon. Gentleman on this point, would he also understand that there are people behind him, including the hon. Lady the Member for Wolverhampton, North-East (Mrs. Renée Short), who are campaigning to get rid of the "conscience clause"? Will he made it clear that he will resist her pressures?

Mr. Crossman

There are people campaigning both ways.

Mrs. Short

Hear, hear.

Mr. Crossman

There are people still campaigning to get rid of the Act altogether.

Mr. St. John-Stevas

Not me.

Mr. Crossman

The Act can be operated only if we abide by the "conscience clause", because that is the essential basis on which agreement was reached with the medical profession. That is the assurance I gave in my original answer.

Dr. Miller

Will my right hon. Friend give an assurance that, since there are very few concessions which he can make to the anti-abortion lobby which will satisfy it, there is no intention of hounding doctors who are performing a service which is necessary to the community?

Mr. Crossman

It is not really a question of hounding. The problem is that the doctors and the nurses in a gynaeco-logical department often find it distasteful to have the whole balance of the work upset because they must take over abortion work of which they feel others should take a fair share. That causes difficulties in many of our hospitals.