Two journalists from the London Telegraph, Daniel Foggo and Charlotte Edwards, secretly filmed Dr. Saroj Adlakha explaining how late-term abortions were performed at the Ginemedex clinic in Barcelona, Spain, giving details of real cases. Dr. Adlakha said she had taken to the clinic a British 18-year-old university student, a healthy patient who was 31.5 weeks (almost 8 months) pregnant and one of many young British women referred to the Ginemedex clinic on the recommendation of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). BPAS is a National Health Service (NHS)-funded charity and Britain’s biggest abortion provider. The undercover journalists pretended to have a daughter with a 29-week healthy pregnancy, and Dr. Adlakha said she was prepared to help arrange a similar abortion.
Illegal Work
This chilling report came after an investigation by the Telegraph proving that BPAS, which receives about £12 million of NHS money each year, recommends that British women with healthy pregnancies beyond the 24-week legal British cutoff have terminations at the Ginemedex clinic — despite such practices also being illegal in Spain. The Sunday Telegraph of October 10, 2004, clearly documents the growing business of late abortions and the inertia of Spanish authorities in controlling illegal abortions and “abortion tourism.” Staff at the clinic have confessed that they fabricate patients’ paperwork to make the abortions appear legal and said they would carry out terminations of healthy pregnancies up to 30 weeks (or 7.5 months). They said that up to 8 out of 10 of their patients were British, with most referred by BPAS.
Investigation
Pro-abortion Tony Blair’s administration has started an investigation of BPAS. BPAS’ mandate is helping young British women to have an abortion, paying 70% of all the expenses with public funds. Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain’s Chief Medical Officer, has since been ordered to investigate the scandal by John Reid, the Health Secretary. Reid told the media, “I have asked the Sunday Telegraph to forward their evidence to my department as a matter of urgency.”
If found guilty of helping British women obtain illegal abortions, medical personnel could receive three years in jail. Just after the scandal was reported, Spanish health officials said Ginemedex was behaving according to the law. Immediately, several Spanish pro-life organizations like E-Christians, the Catholic Medical Association of Catalonia and Christian Jurists of Catalonia prepared a legal case to avoid the “sweeping under the rug” phenomenon.
Eugenio Azpiroz, deputy of the Popular Party and a well-known Spanish pro-life politician, presented some questions to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to be answered in writing. He wants to know what actions the government would take. “Until now, abortion clinics have performed illegal procedures with impunity and our authorities did nothing. It is not worthless that someone speaks loud and clear,” he said.
