Abortions

South Yorkshire-based Prabha Sivaraman received a summon to appear in court next month. She is one of two doctors filmed and accused of agreeing to arrange Abortions based the sex of the unborn baby; an illegal basis for an abortion in the UK. The recordings came to light after an investigation done by "The Telegraph" newspaper in 2012. At the time, Sivaraman worked for private and NHS clinics in Manchester which is when she was recorded saying to a woman, "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a Termination." This is to be used against her in a private prosecution headed by a pro-life campaigner, a rare occurrence that is also supported by the Cristian Legal Centre.

 

The allegation against Sivaraman is "conspiracy to procure poison to be used with intent to procure abortion" contrary to section 59 of the 1861 Offences against the person Act. 

 

A court in Birmingham is due to hold a hearing in January to decide whether to issue a separate summons against Dr Palaniappan Rajmohan. In January, a hearing is due to be held in a Birmingham court to decide whether to issue a summons against the other doctor implicated in the recordings, Dr Palaniappan Rajmohan. He was recorded agreeing to an Abortion procedure despite telling the undercover reporter "It's like female infanticide, isn't it?" in Calthorpe Clinic in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

 

As UK law stands, for an abortion to be legal, it must receive the approval of two doctors, be considered less harmful to the woman or the unborn child to carry out a termination than continuing with the pregnancy. However, the UK law as we have reported in a previous article, is unclear on gender based abortions which has called British MPs to overwhelmingly vote to declare gender Abortion illegal. The argument that the prosecution is using is that although the law may be "silent" on the matter, gender is not a ground under the Act and is therefore illegal.