A Tory minister who voted to curtail access to abortion has been granted ministerial responsibility for abortion care in the UK, in a move that has provoked fury among service providers.
Maria Caulfield, recently appointed women’s minister by the new prime minister Rishi Sunak, is a former officer of the all-party parliamentary pro-life group, and voted against legalising abortion in Northern Ireland.
Abortion was banned in almost all circumstances, even in pregnancies resulting from rape and incest, with women who sought terminations facing life imprisonment until the procedure was legalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019.
Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a leading abortion provider in the UK, said it is “quite simply appalling that Maria Caulfield, a self-declared ‘voice of the unborn’”, had been “given the government portfolio for abortion care”.
Ms Murphy added: “This is an absolute slap in the face to the women of this country, and suggests a complete disregard for their needs. In the aftermath of Roe v Wade, the UK has an opportunity to really show the world what progress and the protection of women’s rights looks like – this appointment would signal just the opposite.”
Roe v Wade – the landmark decision that legalised abortion in the US in 1973 – was overturned by the country’s Supreme Court in June this year, with millions of women losing their legal right to have a termination.
Ms Murphy said: “This is an MP who has described those who support women needing to end pregnancies as the ‘abortion industry’, which she has accused of being ‘unethical, unsafe and unprofessional’.
“Unlike any other area of healthcare, decisions regarding the licensing of abortion clinics sit with the relevant government minister. Maria Caulfield potentially now has the ability to block the establishment of new abortion services, and close existing clinics.”
She noted that Ms Caulfield had voted to “recriminalise at-home early medical abortions, and voted against measures to protect women from anti-abortion clinic harassment” in the past year.
“These two important pieces of legislation were passed by an overwhelming majority by her fellow MPs. Maria Caulfield does not speak for the House, does not speak for women, and is in no way an appropriate minister to oversee this vital aspect of women’s healthcare,” Ms Murphy added.
“We urge the prime minister to revoke this appointment and ensure that Maria Caulfield is not given this portfolio and is not handed the chance to jeopardise women’s access to safe, legal, NHS-funded abortion care.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care told The Independent that abortion typically used to sit within the public health brief.
Ms Caulfield, the Conservative MP for Lewes, has previously suggested curbing the 24-week abortion time limit. She has also been criticised for claiming that babies born at a mere 18 weeks “grow up to live long, healthy lives like the rest of us” – an assertion that was rejected as “simply untrue”.
Earlier this week, she claimed that protesters who harass women outside abortion clinics may be attempting to “comfort” them. Ms Caulfield made the comments while standing up for her decision to vote against “buffer zones” outside abortion clinics.
However, Ms Caulfield also said she would “uphold” her fellow MPs’ vote in support of buffer zones. Earlier in the month, MPs voted in favour of these zones being implemented outside abortion clinics in England and Wales, in a major win for abortion providers.
A “buffer zone” stops anti-abortion protesters, or other demonstrators, from standing in the close vicinity of clinics or hospitals that provide abortion services. Ms Murphy previously said the BPAS was “delighted” that politicians had voted to “protect women, protect healthcare staff, and establish buffer zones”.
“Every year, around 100,000 women are treated [in relation to abortion services] by a clinic or hospital that is targeted by anti-abortion protests,” she said.
“These groups attempt to deter or prevent women from accessing abortion care by displaying graphic images of foetuses, calling women ‘murderers’, and hanging baby clothing around clinic entrances, causing women significant distress.”
Other tactics employed by anti-abortion protesters include chasing women down the street and sharing pamphlets containing wholly false medical information. This sometimes even involves disseminating material that features incorrect claims that abortions cause breast cancer.
