Welsh women and access to late abortion

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv29xplk851o

Women in Wales are being forced to travel to London to access late term abortions. This was reported on recently in Scotland, as its a service that also isn't available in Scotland.

What a terrible prospect when faced with an already hugely stressful and upsetting situation.

That's appalling. Makes the whole thing more stressful / womens' needs just not being seen as important.

It’s surgical abortion after 18 or 19 weeks that isn’t available locally.

Women can access terminations locally after their 18 week scan but the termination won’t be surgical. Non surgical means they go through labour and delivery. I guess non surgical means they can be looked after by midwives. No need for an anaesthetist.
Whilst surgical means it requires a clinician and enough patients for them to maintain the right level of clinical skills to be safe practising that surgery?

What is surgical abortion?

• Surgical abortion involves an operation to remove the pregnancy from the womb.
• It may be done with local anaesthetic, conscious sedation, or general anaesthetic.
• According to the NHS, external, the surgical method can be performed by vacuum or suction aspiration or by dilation and evacuation.

In Wales, most health boards said they referred patients 18 weeks and later to BPAS for treatment in England, with Hywel Dda offering treatment in Glangwili Hospital up to 19 weeks and six days.

Yes, similar arguments to Scotland's.

I'm not sure what the answer is, Draigosaurus. I understand the logistical issues involved may be difficult, but the outcomes for those small numbers of women faced with this are horrible to think about.