The option of counselling should be available for all women, and not mandatory as some politicians have called for, the British Medical
Association annual representatives meeting heard.
But the organisation providing the abortion should not also provide the counselling because of a ‘subtle conflict of interest’, it was argued.
Proposing the motion, Dr Mark Pickering, a member of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “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, speaking against the motion said the cost of counselling would add £40 to £100 and argued that parliament had rejected calls for counselling to be separated from the organisation providing abortions.
Prof Wendy Savage, who is a spokesman for Doctors for Women’s Choice on Abortion also spoke against the motion saying doctors were capable of explaining the pros and cons of the procedure in the same way surgeons do with other operations.
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.
Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which both provide abortions, also counsel women beforehand.
In 2011, there were 189,931 abortions carried out for women who live in England and Wales, a slight increase on the previous year and almost eight per cent more than a decade ago.
Last year Nadine Dorries tabled an amendment which would have stripped abortion providers of their role in counselling women. She argued that abortion providers had a vested interest in counselling women towards having a termination.
"It must be wrong that the abortion provider, who is paid to the tune of £60m to carry out terminations, should also provide the counselling if a woman feels strong or brave enough to ask for it," she said.
"If an organisation is paid that much for abortions, where is the incentive to reduce them?"
Although the amendement was rejected Dorries declared she had "won the war" after the health minister Anne Milton announced that the "spirit" of her plans would be embodied in a consultation.
The Dorries amendment would have stripped non-statutory abortion providers such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) from offering counselling to women.
This was designed to provide greater opportunities for independent counsellors, some of whom are influenced by pro-life groups, to provide counselling. NHS abortion providers would still be free to offer counselling.
