Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that abortion pills taken at home are being taken under the 10-week gestation limit.

The Department is carefully monitoring the impact of and compliance with the temporary approval of home administration of both sets of abortion medication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have regular meetings with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Care Quality Commission and abortion service providers.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has issued clinical guidelines for healthcare professionals on ‘Coronavirus infection and abortion care’. The guidance sets out the circumstances where women should be asked to attend a clinic for an ultra-sound scan. However, it states that “most women can determine the gestational age of their pregnancy with reasonable accuracy by last menstrual period (LMP) alone”. The Royal College’s guidance has recently been updated and now includes a decision aid for clinicians to use to help determine if an ultra-sound scan is required. This includes detailed questions to identify gestational age. Women are given clear advice that they can only receive this treatment at home if they are under 10 weeks gestation.

As part of the consultation prior to treatment commencing, women will be clearly informed that medical abortion is a two-stage process which requires the administration of Mifepristone followed by Misoprostol to successfully complete the procedure.

The Code of Practice outlined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 prohibits the pre-release of official statistics before the due date of publication. The Department will be publishing an additional official statistics release of abortion data covering the COVID-19 period from January to June 2020 on 10 September.