Nadine Dorries’s rubbish on abortion counselling


by Sunny Hundal    
10:41 am - June 28th 2012

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Nadine Dorries MP tweeted this yesterday:

The second claim is patent rubbish.

The motion was submitted by Dr Mark Pickering from the Christian Medical Fellowship, who argued:

I am not talking about enforced counselling or an imposed cooling off period. Any counselling should be non-directive. This motion is about extending choice for women.

Dr Jan Wise spoke against the motion, saying it would increase the cost of each abortion by £40 to £100, and said Parliament had already rejected calls for abortion providers not to offer counselling too.

The motion was passed because of the way it was worded, as the Telegraph reported:

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the BMA ethics committee said the wording of the motion was unfortunate in that it referred to counselling that was independent of the abortion provider, because in most cases the NHS provided the abortion and it was not being argued that the NHS should not also provide counselling.

For that reason, although the motion was passed, it will not become official BMA policy.

To reiterate, this will not become BMA policy. It doesn’t change a thing, despite Nadine Dorries claiming victory.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Chaise Guevara

“The second claim is patent rubbish.”

Ah, so that apostrophe in the title is possessive! That was bugging me.

2. Just Visiting

This is all second hand stuff guys – can’t we have any links to the BMA’s own website?

Ok, just found one:

But doctors and medical students were not convinced enough by the arguments that counselling for women should be independent of the abortion provider.

I’m stretched to see how that finding reflects well from a liberal perspective – making so little of indepence.

Imagine if the current counselling providers were all bodies that made their money selling specialist equipment used in only in abortions.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

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  2. BPAS

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  3. sunny hundal

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  4. simon thomas dean

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  11. nigel thompson

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  13. Stephen Tonkin

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  14. Tony McMahon

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  15. Dr Bug

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  16. Stuart

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  17. leftlinks

    Liberal Conspiracy – Nadine Dorries’s rubbish on abortion counselling http://t.co/8az8eIBI

  18. BevR

    Nadine Dorries’s rubbish on abortion counselling | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/B4SiEknr via @libcon

  19. Cat Morgan

    Nadine Dorries' rubbish on abortion counselling http://t.co/oWKuyuAd @libcon on yesterday's BMA motion #prochoice

  20. BPCA

    Oh, Dorries. Please do shut up. Now. Thanks. http://t.co/cFmBQ4QQ (via @libcon, @Abortion_Rights)

  21. Emily Bishop

    Oh, Dorries. Please do shut up. Now. Thanks. http://t.co/cFmBQ4QQ (via @libcon, @Abortion_Rights)

  22. PaulWilks

    Nadine Dorries’s rubbish on abortion counselling | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/B7tbIMGY

  23. Michael Gloady

    @NadineDorriesMP Are you not paying attention or being deceitful? http://t.co/AOMLMHzw

  24. mark a williams

    Nadine Dorries’s rubbish on abortion counselling | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/uVPShSxL via @libcon

  25. J.B.

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  26. Becky Pants

    Nadine Dorries' rubbish on abortion counselling http://t.co/oWKuyuAd @libcon on yesterday's BMA motion #prochoice

  27. Arun Mehta

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  28. Richard Essery

    Nadine Dorries' rubbish on abortion counselling http://t.co/oWKuyuAd @libcon on yesterday's BMA motion #prochoice





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