David Burrowes – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy that UK public funds should not be used for the purposes of campaigning for more liberal abortion laws in another country.

Lynne Featherstone

In many countries abortion may be permitted only on limited or highly restricted grounds. In these circumstances, we can consider support to increase awareness among policy-makers, legislators, national health authorities and health personnel of the circumstances under which abortion is allowed. We can also work to highlight the consequences arising from the complications of unsafe abortion, such as the burden of maternal ill-health and high health service costs.

In addition we can also consider support to locally-led efforts to enable legal and policy reform in circumstances where the existing law and policy are contributing to high maternal mortality and morbidity; and to regional or international initiatives that are working to prevent unsafe abortion.