In looking forward to free-access abortions clinics on the high street soon

[MadameDefarge]

in order to deal with all those pesky third child pregnancies conceived to extort more money from the tax payer by feckless benefit scroungers?

Come on Dave, have the courage of your convictions...accidents happen as we all know, so we need a change to abortion legislation to allow free access to abortions.

Of course another option is to perform sterilisation on benefit claimants. Or perhaps demand an abstinence pledge for claimants?

Hm. Lots of policy review needed to bring other services into line with this plan.

Although if parents decided to keep the baby, we need another system, perhaps a cool badge worn by the children to signal they are not entitled to any govt services, like health, education, etc. But that's for the future I guess.

Just me then.

Whut?

That's hysteria at it's best.

What is wrong with the Government trying to make people responsible for their own actions? They've said those with more than 2 children just now won't be affected but why not introduce something which manages the welfare bill?

I think its a logical need that will arise out of this legislation. At the moment women can only have an abortion under quite strict criteria in law. If families are going to be penalised for conceiving a third child while on benefits, and therefore will be unable to care for either their existing children or the new baby adequately at that moment in their lives, then we should also provide easier access to abortion.

Goodness me OP. Ok - just for balance can you tell us why so many families can't have the larger families they want because they simply can't afford it? You know - responsible people of whatever political persuasion. It just isn't a bottomless pit of free money you know. What would you do?

That's what contraception is for......

Contraception, the MAP, abortion and sterilisation are all free on the NHS for those that want to access them. We are very privileged to have so many levels of control over our fertility. What is wrong with benefit claimants having to make decisions about whether they can afford a third child in the same way everyone else does?

Well, I have only one child because I can't afford another. But it is not beyond the realms of possibility that I might have a contraceptive failure and get pregnant.

However, I have stated what I would do - give free access to abortion to women in this country.

There is free access to abortion to women in the country

no, you keep the youngest and send the oldest to the workhouse... obviously!

Abortion is not "free" in the sense of being on demand in this country.

And we all know no contraception is 100%. Nor is the MAP. and even in rare circumstances abortion and sterilisation can fail.

My point is if there is legislation prohibiting state support of families who conceive another child, we also need equal access to on demand abortion.

I think this op is insulting to benefit claimants as though they are too thick to be able to take responsibility for the fertility and contraceptive use. so we are going to have to have conveyor belt abortion to clean up their mess.

Well I think we should go the whole hog and implant everyone with fertility control chips that can only be turned off when you pass a "I will make a great parent" test.

Now, I wonder whose definition of "great parent" we should adopt...

bad, brilliant idea!

Oh dear....it is very hot isn't it?

Well I suppose all these 'free' abortions would cost the taxpayer a lot of money?

Cant, I am a benefit claimant. I consider myself well educated about contraception. that does not mean accidents cant happen. Lord knows, there are enough threads on MN where perfectly lovely women find themselves unwelcomely pregnant.

When I got pregnant accidentally with my third we had to think long and har whether to go ahead or not, as we wouldn't receive any more money. Why shouldn't other people?

A one-off abortion has got to be cheaper than paying benefits for a third child for 18 years.

Exactly onesleep. If you had decided to have a termination, wouldn't you have preferred to have quick and automatic access to it rather than jump through the hoops of two doctors agreeing etc etc? And possibly waiting many weeks for the procedure?

People who are working dont get wage rises when they have more children, so why should people on benefits?

Would it be a 'one off' abortion though? What happens when uses that up and comes needs another one or two?

It is on demand. You visit the GP and ask to be referred and they refer you.

I meant one-off in terms of cost.

actually squeaky, if you are working you would get more benefit in terms of CTC and WFTC. And CB.