Women seeking abortions ‘manipulated’ by false medical information at crisis pregnancy centres

Women are being “manipulated” and given false medical information with no scientific basis by crisis pregnancy centres, an investigation has found.

A BBC Panorama documentary discovered more than a third of crisis pregnancy advice centres are providing those seeking abortions with false information and unethical guidance about pregnancy terminations.

Such erroneous advice included falsely connecting abortion with breast cancer.

Crisis pregnancy centres are not linked with the NHS and the majority are registered charities - with services stating they provide help as well as counselling for women grappling with an unexpected pregnancy.

Panorama sent undercover journalists to three centres, with one journalist informed in a centre based in London “some [women] will bleed to death” if they get a pregnancy terminated.

While at an appointment at a centre in Newcastle, an undercover reporter was asked: “Would you be able to tell your daughters about having a termination? Or would it be something you’d always have to keep quiet about?”

Meanwhile, an advisor at a centre in Belfast said: “Within 48 hours your baby will die of hunger and thirst. It will be starved to death.”

Abortions are a safe legal form of healthcare which women have been able to access via the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales for over half a decade - being legal since 1967.

While in Northern Ireland, abortion was banned in almost all circumstances, even rape and incest, with women seeking terminations facing life imprisonment, until the procedure was legalised in October 2019.

Dr Jonathan Lord, the medical director of MSI Reproductive Choices UK, a leading abortion provider, told Panorama their investigation’s findings were “extremely troubling.”

“There is no increased risk of serious mental illness, infertility, or breast cancer after an abortion,” Dr Lord, a consultant gynaecologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, said.

“These centres are set up to target women who are struggling with their decision, and then give them false advice to try to sway them away from an abortion.”

He warned “they risk causing significant harm and damage to those especially vulnerable patients.”

Speaking to The Independent for Dr Pam Lowe, a sociologist, said she believes the majority of anti-abortion activists in the UK are opposed to abortions in instances of rape, incest, fatal feotal anomality, or if the pregnancy places the woman’s life at risk.

Dr Lowe, a senior lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston University who specialises in anti-abortion activism in the UK, said: “It is basically a complete ban. In their world view, abortion is almost the worst thing you can do as a woman, they feel it has a fundamental impact on women’s mental and physical health so they argue rape is not as bad.”

BBC Panorama: Crisis Pregnancy Centres Uncovered will be broadcast on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday and can be watched on BBC iPlayer.