Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Health, what clinical guidance advises on (a) at what stage of pregnancy anaesthetic is applied to a fetus before an abortion procedure and (b) for which kind of abortion procedures anaesthetic is applied.

To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists provides guidance on the use of anaesthesia in abortion procedures in guidelines on The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion and Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice, which can be viewed online at:

https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/abortion-guideline_web_1.pdf

and

https://www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/guidelines/rcogfetalawarenesswpr0610.pdf