HC Deb 13 November 1989 vol 160 cc42-3W
Mr. Alton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what instructions his Department issues to doctors undertaking abortions on foreign women about their aftercare following the abortion;

(2) what medical formalities are required prior to an abortion for foreign women attending private clinics for termination of pregnancy.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

As for resident women, abortion is available for a foreign patient if two doctors certify in good faith that the risk to the life or injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant women or the existing children of her family would be greater if the pregnancy continued than if it were terminated. Decisions relating to the clinical care and follow-up of all abortion patients are matters for the individual doctors concerned.

Approved places are required to make special provision for counselling and aftercare of foreign patients including the provision of interpreters, own-language information leaflets, and discharge letters to the referring doctor in their own language.

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