Vacuum aspiration for induced abortion could be safely and legally performed by nurses and midwives

Abstract

Background Some 40% of abortions carried out in England and Wales are done by vacuum aspiration. It is widely assumed that, in order to be lawful, these procedures must be performed by doctors.

Aim and design This study aimed to provide a detailed reassessment of the relevant law and the clinical evidence that supports this assumption.

Conclusions A close reading of relevant law reveals that this assumption is unfounded. On the contrary, it would be lawful for appropriately trained nurses or midwives, acting as part of a multidisciplinary team, to carry out vacuum aspiration procedures. This interpretation of the law offers the potential for developing more streamlined, cost-effective abortion services, which would be both safe and highly acceptable to patients.

Metadata

Authors/Creators:	Sheldon, S. Fletcher, J.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Dates:	Accepted: 5 December 2016 Published (online): 18 January 2017 Published: October 2017
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2019 16:48
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2019 11:55
Status:	Published
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1136/jfprhc-2016-101542
Related URLs:	Author

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Vacuum aspiration for induced abortion could be safely and legally performed by nurses and midwives

Abstract

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