Dyma'r erthygl gan Sioned Williams AS, am "hawl iechyd" nad oes gan bawb yng Nghymru fynediad iddi
Cyhoeddwyd yr erthygl hon yn y Western Mail ddydd Llun 3 Mawrth 2025 (yn Saesneg).
Action vital now on abortion care
If something’s a “health right”, and it’s the government telling you it’s a health right, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect it to be available to everyone in Wales who needs it.
Not so with many aspects of women’s health.
That’s why it was really important for Welsh Government to publish their long-awaited Women’s Health Plan, which arrived on one of the last Senedd days of 2024. In it, they state “abortion is a fundamental aspect of women’s reproductive healthcare and health rights.” Yet access to this health right varies widely across Wales, and in many cases, results in patients having to be referred to England for treatment, often at a cost to themselves.
I’m a member of the Women’s Health Senedd cross party group and in it, we heard from the British Pregnancy Advisory Services (BPAS). They explained how 1 in 3 women in Wales will have an abortion over the course of their lives, but in Wales, nowhere provides abortion beyond 18 weeks, and no site provides surgical terminations beyond 16 weeks.
The Cross Party Group have been raising these points with Welsh Government since 2018, but so far, we have not seen changes which should happen to ensure all abortion care is available in Wales.
In researching this issue, I read the story of one women – Katie – who was told at just over 17 weeks pregnancy, that her baby was unlikely to survive. At this stage, her only termination option in Wales involved going through labour, on a labour ward surrounded by mothers and newborns. This is because, although perfectly legal, surgical terminations aren’t available in Wales after 16 weeks. After contacting BPAS for advice, Katie had to go to England for care, and ended up having to pay for travel and accommodation herself, which she found added up to more than £1000.
BPAS say that this story is sadly not unique, and they have met people who have felt like they had no option but continue with an unwanted pregnancy.
Katie says that, had she been forced to go through labour, the trauma could have put her off having more children. As it stands, despite the experience being devastating, she is hopeful to still be able to have a baby at some point.
We know that although the numbers involved of this type of abortion care is small, many of the women who need this sort of abortion care can often be vulnerable, such as rape victims, who deserve the best support possible.
I recently asked Welsh Government, that given the launch of their Women’s Health Plan, which asserts that abortion care is a health right, what concrete plans they had to make the necessary improvements to abortion care? While the Minister confirmed that, thanks to my question, this was moved up their agenda, we still do not have a set time for delivery. The timescale they’ve given themselves in their Action Plan is 6-10 years. That’s not nearly soon enough for those women for whom time is so critical.