Sursis aims to push back abortion debate

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Two members of P&R are asking the States to delay debate on the abortion law until September next year, while a working group looks into the challenges of abortion on the basis of disability.

Deputies Jane Stephens and Jonathan Le Tocq are also calling for a "broader and more inclusive" public consultation on the modernisation of the law, which is due to be debated during the States meeting starting tomorrow.

The proposals are seeking to make three major changes to the existing 1997 law:

• Increasing Guernsey's gestational limits in line with those in England. If agreed, this means there will be no upper limit on when a pregnancy can be ended if a significant abnormality is detected, while the threshold for aborting pregnancies which put the mother's physical or mental health at risk will be increased from 12 weeks to 24.
• Removing the requirement for two medical professionals to certify an abortion. Currently, in both Guernsey and England, a woman who wishes to end her pregnancy must be signed off my two doctors before seeing a gynaecologist, but many national bodies are calling for this to change. No other procedures in the island require this level of certification.
• Removing criminal sanctions relating to a woman attempting to end her own pregnancy. At the moment, any woman who tries to abort her pregnancy herself - for example, by buying medication online - can be convicted and could be given up to a life sentence in prison.

On average, around 111 abortions are performed in Guernsey each year, while a further eight island residents travel to England or Wales for the procedure.

Pictured: The average number of abortions performed in Guernsey each year (further stats available here).

The policy letter updating the 1997 law was published in March this year, following consultation with local clinicians. Members of the public were then invited to contact Health & Social Care or deputies themselves to comment on the proposals.

More than 300 responses were received, with 66% of respondents backing the recommendations. HSC has made a summary of all the responses, which can be read in full here.

However, Deputies Stephens and Le Tocq would like to see more public responses before any decisions are made.

Pictured: Deputies Jonathan Le Tocq and Jane Stephens.

If their sursis is agreed in the States, it will give HSC until 30 September 2021 to encourage more Guernsey residents to give their views over a "time frame deemed sufficient to ensure engagement with the wider community". It also instructs the committee to form a working group of representatives with expertise or an interest in abortion and "undertake research into any challenges on the basis of disability and the implications of legal challenges and changes to the law in the British Isles which may effect reform in Guernsey", before returning to deputies with a revised policy letter.

Further information on the modernisation of the law and how it could change can be found here.