Chief of U.K.’s Largest Abortion Provider: ‘Abortion is Birth Control Women Need’

Pregnant woman in clinic Delcia LopezReuters
Delcia Lopez/Reuters

The chief executive of the U.K.’s largest abortion provider explained recent data that shows half of all U.K. women seeking abortion used contraception by admitting that abortion is another form of birth control.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said:

When you encourage women to use contraception, you give them the sense that they can control their fertility…Our data shows women cannot control their fertility through contraception alone, even when they are using some of the most effective methods. Family planning is contraception and abortion. Abortion is birth control that women need when their regular method lets them down.

Furedi was explaining data released by BPAS from 60,592 U.K. women which showed that, in 2016, over half (51.2 percent) who sought abortion were using at least one form of birth control – hormonal or long-acting reversible contraception (LARC).

A report released by BPAS that explores women’s reasons for choosing late-term abortion also reveals that use of some form of birth control is one reason women do not test for pregnancy early on, and then choose abortion when they discover they are pregnant later.

The report states:

Hormonal contraception can cause side effects which may mask the symptoms of pregnancy, including suppressing menstrual bleeding completely, or causing irregular or light periods. Women using a method of contraception may also not identify their pregnancy at an earlier stage because they, unlike those not using any method of contraception, had not anticipated falling pregnant.

In light of the data, BPAS recommends that greater access to birth control not be presented as a replacement to abortion, especially in developing countries.

BPAS says it reasserts the principle set forth by the summit titled Family Planning 2020, which seeks to ensure all women have access to contraceptives to protect their health and empower them.

“[T]he data demonstrates that these goals cannot be achieved through better access to contraception alone, and that safe, legal abortion services are vital in order to enable women to control their fertility and protect their reproductive health,” BPAS states.

Niamh Ui Bhriain (pronounced Neeve O’Brien), a spokeswoman for the Life Institute in Ireland, tells Breitbart News that BPAS is at “the forefront in demanding that no restrictions whatsoever be permitted on when abortion can be accessed – they want it legal at any time, for any reason and paid for by the taxpayer.”

Ui Bhriain continues:

They also spent decades selling their services as “reproductive healthcare specialists” by telling women that they could control their fertility but now their spokeswoman, Ann Furedi, is claiming that women can’t do that. Of course, the solution to this dilemma is not a debate about what might be best for women, but simply to offer more abortion. For abortion providers, a dead baby is the only solution ever offered.

Similarly, Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director who now runs an organization that assists abortion workers in leaving their jobs, said in a statement,“The majority of women who came to Planned Parenthood for abortions were ones who used some sort of contraception.”

“Abortion is used as a method of contraception itself – except that it’s no longer contraception at that point, it’s ending the life of a child already conceived,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen many women have two, three, four abortions because their contraception failed.”

Ui Bhriain notes that, similar to Planned Parenthood, BPAS has “created the perfect business model”:

They sell a product which prevents pregnancy, yet the number of abortions they carry out continues to climb while women are using this product, and all of this is paid for by the taxpayer to the tune of millions every year. Women need to start asking who actually has their best interests at heart, because its certainly not outfits like BPAS who are profiting from exploiting women and killing babies.

Ironically, as Catholic News Agency observes, Furedi actually affirms the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ statement that “greater access to contraception does not reduce abortions.”

A “fact sheet” released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states, “Contraceptive use is already virtually universal among women of reproductive age,” and that “contraceptives often fail to prevent pregnancy.”

USCCB continues:

In the first 12 months of contraceptive use, 16.4% of teens will become pregnant. If the teen is cohabiting, the pregnancy (or “failure”) rate rises to 47%. Among low-income cohabiting teens, the failure rate is 48.4% for birth control pills and 71.7% for condoms.

Forty-eight percent of women with unintended pregnancies and 54% of women seeking abortions were using contraception in the month they became pregnant.

The USCCB also observes, “Studies show that greater access to contraception does not reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions.”

“Increasing access to contraception gives teens a false sense of security, leading to earlier onset of sexual activity and more sexual partners, which counteracts any reduction in unintended pregnancies,” the bishops add.

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