Welsh women having to travel for abortions

[NitroNine]

Abortions have finally become available throughout the whole of the UK; yet women are still having to travel. In this case, it’s the women of Wales, should they require an abortion past 18 weeks. Things haven’t improved substantially since 2019 save for the 2022 amendment to the Abortion Act meaning access to abortion up to 10 weeks has improved across the whole country.

It is a small number of women, but that doesn’t make it acceptable - they should be able to access the care they need without having to travel to England (usually London). Women are choosing to continue pregnancies to term rather than have an abortion in a distant city as they would rather become a bereaved mother at the hospital they’d always planned to give birth at.

The WEP are talking about it on TwiX:
“In many parts of Wales there’s no abortion care beyond 9 weeks and after 18 weeks there is no care available at all.
Women being sent to England and forced to pay hundreds for travel and accommodation.”
They have created a petition; but obviously I’m not going to link to it as that breaches MN Rules.
They give no indication as to what they’re planning to do with the petition mind you - present it to the FM? Plaster it all over the Senedd? Send it to Health Boards &/or NHS Wales to try to persuade them to redirect some of their funding into abortion care?

It’s utterly disgraceful in this day and age. Just goes to show that YET A-FUCKING-GAIN, issues pertaining to women are treated like they just don’t matter.

(As a side note, WEP did something vaguely useful?)

Welsh people have to travel miles for many aspects of NHS care. There is not the population to sustain all services in Wales. Women with severe mental illness are being sent further than this. People I know have to travel miles for stroke, cardiac, vision and paediatric services. The NHS is the National health service in UK.

It's not unusual to have to travel for NHS care in Wales. Our once large town/now a City doesn't even have a walk in centre.
I'm not saying it's right, but it's an on going problem, sadly not just for access to abortions.

Same for women in Scotland. Some types of abortion need travel to England.

The women on both countries are in a wretched position. I've lost track of what's available or not to women in NI.

There’s another thread on this already.

It’s late term surgical abortions which require travel to a BPAS clinic in England.

Non surgical terminations after 18 weeks are available locally via the NHS cared for by midwives in the maternity unit.

Welsh people have to travel miles for many aspects of NHS care.

Indeed. I had to travel over an hour on windy roads and in appalling weather in well established labour in order to get to a hospital that had pain relief stronger than gas and air. Scariest time of my life.

Not that it doesn't make this issue any less important, but it's part of a much wider problem.

*to England, to clarify.

Sorry @Draigosaurus I did look but couldn’t see anything: that said, one of my own threads was playing hide & seek this afternoon, so no idea what’s going on 🫤 (I’ve also been away from FWR for a bit, which is not like me, normally I’m pretty on top of what’s been been posted even if I’m not contributing to the threads.)

And they are losing two air ambulance bases which mean that if you live in Mid Wales you will more likely to die. They have just concluded a flawed consultation where they just did what they wanted to anyway.

They moved the maternity unit from Shrewsbury to Telford knowing that women from mid wales would have to travel 40 miles for consultant led care, all weathers, over appalling roads. Now they are moving it back to Shrewsbury because it was the wrong decision.

People wait hours for an Ambulance and when they get taken to hospital in Shrewsbury wait hours to get into the hospital then wait hours to get onto the ward. Hereford the same. Two hospitals providing care to Welsh patients with some of y the he longest A&E wait times in the UK.

What does Eluned Morgan do? Nothing. She does nothing.