Healthcare organisations have called on the BBC to reverse its “stigmatising” decision to not provide information about abortion.
After an episode of Call the Midwife, in which a character died as a result of complications from an illegal abortion, women who visited the BBC Action Line website complained there was no advice relating to abortion.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) raised concerns about the omission, and the BBC said it had chosen not to include abortion because it was “contentious” and it did not want to be seen as “supporting one side”.
“It isn’t possible for the BBC Action Line to offer support for abortion and similarly contentious issues without referring people either to campaigning organisations which take a particular stance on an issue or to organisations which provide it,” said a spokesperson.
“Doing so could imply the BBC supported one side or another in any contentious issue which it does not do in its coverage.”
Bpas, which provides reproductive healthcare to women and advocates reproductive choice, has now signed a letter to the BBC which was published on Thursday, expressing “disappointment”.
The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, Family Planning Association (FPA), Marie Stopes UK, the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists are among the co-signatories.
The letter says: “Abortion is not a ‘contentious issue’ – it is a routine part of NHS-funded healthcare, provided by doctors, nurses, and midwives every day in hospitals and clinics across the country.
“In barring information the BBC is in effect ‘supporting one side’ by treating abortion as different to all the other medical procedures and conditions the BBC chooses to include. This is highly stigmatising for the healthcare professionals we represent and the women we care for.”
The organisations pointed out their complaint was with BBC Action Line and not Call the Midwife, which they said had repeatedly handled the issue “extremely sensitively and courageously”.
Abortion, under certain circumstances, has been legal in England, Wales and Scotland since 1967, and, according to government figures, 98% of terminations are funded by the NHS. One in three women in the UK will have an abortion by the age of 45.
On Thursday, the Cardiff Central Labour MP Jo Stevens said on Twitter: “Really don’t understand why the BBC refuse to provide information on legal, reproductive healthcare in their Action Line website as they would normally do for any programme that raise health issues.”
Diana Johnson, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, said the broadcaster’s decision was not acceptable. “You are a public service broadcaster and providing healthcare information is a public service isn’t it?” she said in a tweet.