Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to help ensure that providers of abortion medications are held accountable for sending abortion pills to women outside the legal conditions.

All independent sector services wishing to perform termination of pregnancy must be approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) before they are able to provide abortion services. The CQC inspect independent sector abortion services. If a CQC inspection identifies instances of non-compliance, then appropriate regulatory action will be taken.

The Regulations require registered medical professionals to certify in ‘good faith’ that the gestation period is below 10 weeks if the doctor terminating the pregnancy prescribes the abortion pills from their home, or if one or both pills for early medical abortion are to be taken by the pregnant woman at her home. This certification must be recorded on form EMA1 or a similar certificate and must be kept for three years from the date on which the medicine for the treatment of the pregnancy is prescribed.