Speech in Lords Chamber - Fri 21 Nov 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
"My Lords, these amendments seek to prevent and/or identify coercive behaviours and pressure which may fall short of coercion, and situations in which vulnerable people may be encouraged to make what is actually an involuntary decision to end their own life that they would not otherwise have made. There is …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Fri 21 Nov 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
"I do not want to interrupt the noble Lord for very long. I just wanted to ask him this: is he aware that this House has the right to reject this Bill should it choose to do so? It is a Private Member’s Bill, and there are no conventions that …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Fri 21 Nov 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
"I have a very quick question. I cannot find in the Bill the powers that would allow the doctors to carry out the investigation to which the noble and learned Lord has repeatedly referred. If people do not co-operate, that is it...."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Written Question
Friday 2nd August 2024
Asked by:
Baroness O'Loan (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that abortion providers verify that a woman is not being coerced into an abortion before she is sent abortion pills to be taken at home.
Answered by Baroness Merron
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Abortion providers are required to have effective arrangements in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults, in compliance with the Department’s required standard operating procedures for the approval of independent sector places for termination of pregnancy in England. Providers must ensure that all staff are trained in recognising the signs of potential abuse and coercion in adult women, and how to respond.
In addition, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has published national safeguarding guidance for under 18-year-olds accessing early medical abortion services, which will ensure that robust safeguarding processes are embedded across all abortion services. We expect all providers to have due regard to the RCPCH safeguarding guidance.
Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 16 Mar 2022
Health and Care Bill
"My Lords, what is proposed in this amendment is a fundamental change in the law. What we must look at is, I think, fundamentally for each woman, what actually happens in each situation, and what care is provided for the woman in that situation.
I believe that the Government were …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 10 Feb 2022
Medical Abortion Pills
"My Lords, is the Minister aware of a recent study, based on FOI requests to NHS trusts, which revealed that in 2020 more than 10,000 women who took at least one abortion pill at home, provided by the NHS, needed hospital treatment for side-effects? That is equivalent to more than …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 07 Dec 2021
Health and Care Bill
"My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham, on his excellent maiden speech. I think, too, that this is an appropriate time to pay tribute to those staff in hospitals, care homes and the community who have laboured so hard over the past two years. However, routine …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 02 Sep 2020
Medicines and Medical Devices Bill
"My Lords, I would like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, for her excellent work on the report that she has presented to the House. I would like to support her recommendations, and most particularly her recommendation for a patient safety commissioner.
This is an important Bill, and there …..."Baroness O'Loan - View Speech
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Written Question
Thursday 20th August 2020
Asked by:
Baroness O'Loan (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office on 6 July (HC Deb, col 717), when their public consultation on the use of both sets of abortion pills at home will commence; and how long the consultation will last.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has committed to undertake a public consultation on making permanent the COVID-19 measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation for all eligible women. The current COVID-19 measure will be kept in place until the public consultation concludes and a decision has been made. Work to develop the consultation will begin soon and further details will be available in due course, but the consultation will be completed and a Government response published, before the end date of the temporary order.
Written Question
Thursday 20th August 2020
Asked by:
Baroness O'Loan (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what precautions they are taking to ensure that the public consultation on 'at home' abortions does not extend beyond the end date of the temporary order.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has committed to undertake a public consultation on making permanent the COVID-19 measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation for all eligible women. The current COVID-19 measure will be kept in place until the public consultation concludes and a decision has been made. Work to develop the consultation will begin soon and further details will be available in due course, but the consultation will be completed and a Government response published, before the end date of the temporary order.