England’s first not-for-profit fertility clinic closes within a year of opening

The clinic planned to provide IVF at cost price and to only perform evidence-based procedures. Photograph: Andriy Bezuglov/Alamy

England’s first not-for-profit fertility clinic has shut within a year of opening and has been sold to a private provider, in what one of its founders called “a tragedy for women”.

The game-changing clinic – operated by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), better known for providing abortions – promised to take the profit out of fertility treatment when it opened in December 2021.