§ 2. Sir G. Nabarroasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, in view of the commercialisation of abortion services in London, including offers of package trips for girls from the United States of America to Great Britain at £500 per trip, to include air fares and hotel, clinic services and abortion, medical super- 880 vision and attention, whether he will now make a further statement on his policy regarding abortions for foreigners in Great Britain, without and within the National Health Service.
§ The Secretary of State for Social Services (Mr. Richard Crossman)It would in my view be quite unjustifiable to purport to guarantee an abortion here as part of a package tour. As for the general issue of policy, I can only repeat to the hon. Gentleman that the position with regard to admitting foreigners to this country for private abortions is in principle no different in some respects from that with regard to admitting them for any other operations privately arranged in this country; and it is not our policy—and was not that of the previous Government —to exclude foreign visitors who come for the purpose of private medical or surgical treatment.
§ Sir G. NabarroDoes not the right hon. Gentleman realise that this highly undesirable traffic has been initiated and encouraged by the dreadfully permissive conditions of our abortion laws? Is he really saying that he is prepared to encourage such an undesirable form of invisible export?
§ Mr. CrossmanWhether the abortion law is working well or badly is a question quite different from whether foreign visitors should be permitted to come here and use our system of private practice.
§ 6. Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make a statement on recent experience of the working of the Abortion Act.
§ Mr. CrossmanI am awaiting the results of the study by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the report on recent inquiries in a number of National Health Service hospitals, and detailed analysis of the notification data for 1969.
§ Mr. St. John-StevasThat is all very fine, but what does the right hon. Gentleman intend to do about the shocking allegations of medical incompetence, amounting almost to butchery, which have been made in the Press this morning about an abortion clinic which I understand is the abortion clinic at Calthorpe in Birmingham? Is this not a most 881 urgent problem which the Minister should be tackling at once?
§ Mr. CrossmanThe document, or rather the tape, to which the hon. Gentleman referred is still being typed out. It is a very lengthy thing and it will take some time to study the particular case to which he refers.