‘It made me feel so dirty, like they just wanted me to get away,’ a young woman recalls.
Molly, whose name has been changed, was just 19 when she was forced to travel to England after she was denied an abortion in Scotland.
Although women have a legal right to an abortion up to 24-weeks pregnant, hospitals in the north-most country do not offer these services up to the limit – with some stopping after 13 weeks.
Molly told MailOnline: ‘No one said anything about what I should do, no one helped me, no one talked through what was going to happen.’
The woman had taken the contraceptive injection so was not expecting doctors to tell her she was expecting when she had gone to see them for her bad back: ‘I was in such shock that I threw up on myself.’
That same day she went to a sexual health clinic in Glasgow and when the doctors saw on a scan how far she was, they told her they were not able to help.
‘Looking back on it I feel angry, I felt like I was backed into a corner.’
She packed a bag and flew to London that evening with her recently separated parents.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said at least 88 Scottish patients were forced to cross the border last year to access abortion care
Although women have a legal right to an abortion up to 24 weeks pregnant, hospitals in Scotland do not offer these services up to the limit
‘I was one of the lucky ones because my dad was able to pay for our travel and hotel cost but I can’t imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have that.’
The trio however couldn’t afford separate rooms, and it was the first time they were all put together since splitting up.
Molly’s parents paid over £3,000 altogether which was never compensated by NHS Scotland.
With morphine for pain after the surgery, Molly had to be wheelchaired through the airport for her flight home.
‘It was horrific, everything just happened so quickly’.
Five days later, her breasts began lactating milk – ‘no one told me this was going to happen’.
‘I phoned my mum crying and she went to the pharmacy to buy things to help stop it.’
Molly said it would have been better if she could stay in Scotland: ‘I was totally let down, no one helped me.’
‘There is a judgement call on what we won’t do in Scotland for women who want an abortion’
Lucy Grieve, co-founder and director of Back Off Scotland, said it seemed like ‘there’s a real moral judgement of what is worthy to take place in Scotland with local services’.
She believed ‘Scotland washes their hands of these women and sends them to England’.
The Scottish Government confirmed that only medical abortions were provided – where a woman takes two pills – regardless of the reasons to abort a pregnancy.
This is recommended for the first twelve weeks of a pregnancy, which is the case for when around 90 per cent of abortions in Scotland happen.
After 13 weeks, a minor operation is required to terminate the pregnancy but there is allegedly only one surgeon in Scotland who is trained to carry out the procedure.
Not providing surgical services goes against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines that say all women up to 24 weeks should be ‘offered a choice between medical or surgical abortion’.
A recent FOI from NHS Scotland admitted that there is ‘an explicit inequality in service provision’ for these women, while Dr Ed Dorman said ‘obstetricians and gynaecologists have largely lost the skills to do uterine evacuation which is what we are talking about with later surgical abortions’.
‘This means women end up really sick and there have been maternal deaths. I don’t think any of the older doctors have done this training for many years so they couldn’t really say that they are competent,’ Dr Dorman – who treats many of these women crossing the border – added.
The Scottish Government confirmed that only medical abortions were provided – where a woman takes two pills – regardless of the reasons to abort a pregnancy
Only providing medical abortions goes against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines
‘This is where a two-tier abortion service comes into play,’ Ms Grieve said.
‘There is a judgement call on what we won’t do in Scotland for women who want an abortion.’
Last year, a record number of women in Scotland were forced to use abortion services in England.
Scottish women who are not eligible to have the services in their local hospitals are referred to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), who then direct them to a London clinic in Richmond.
The charity said at least 88 patients were forced to cross the border last year to access abortion care – that’s one journey every four days.
This was 31 per cent higher than the year before of 67 cases and is the largest number of women sent across the border since before the pandemic.
In an email exclusively seen by MailOnline, NHS Highland refused to fully cover the cost of sending a patient to England for abortion care after declining to treat them locally, with BPAS picking up the bill.
They were disputing why the patient stayed for multiple nights in a hotel last June that cost more than £50 with accommodation organised for a chaperone too.
NHS Scotland have also not been fully refunding BPAS, with disputes over travel and accommodation costs
BPAS explained that patients are required to stay for several nights because it is a multi-day treatment at later gestations, an escort is necessary for procedures with general anaesthetic, and that it is extremely unlikely to find suitable accommodation with short notice for under £50 in London.
BPAS raised this with the Scottish Government but by December they still had not had their invoice paid yet from the summer.
Rachael Clarke, Head of Advocacy at BPAS, said: ‘Despite promises that health boards will fully fund women being forced to travel to England, we are still having to pay for some women out of our charitable funds, as otherwise they’d have no choice but to pay for most of their travel and accommodation themselves.
‘It’s just not reasonable to expect women to come up with hundreds of pounds with a few days’ notice to access time-limited healthcare.’
Ms Clarke said they have spent thousands supporting women instead of the NHS, with many women paying as much out of pocket because they are not informed that the trip should be fully funded.
NHS Highland said that their Patient Travel Schemes ‘are not designed to fully reimburse patients for the full cost of travelling to attend an appointment’.
Instead, they should ‘provide a contribution towards the cost and the rates included within our policy are in line with the Scottish Government guidance’.
They added: ‘When NHS Highland staff have confirmed the necessity of an escort and the required number of overnight stays, financial contributions are provided in line with our policy for travel and accommodation costs.’
One expert believed ‘many women will choose to continue with this pregnancy’ because of the challenges they might face travelling to England
NHS Highland said they were undertaking a review of local policies ‘with regards to patient travel reimbursement which will also consider National direction and policy’.
NHS Highland did cover the cost of one train fare.
Ms Grieve said that the women choosing to terminate their pregnancy at later stages are normally ‘very vulnerable patients, like girls under 16, drug addicts, women who are homeless or clinically vulnerable’.
‘There will be complex reasons as to why they’ve not sought treatment before’, she added.
Ms Grieve believes that ‘many women will choose to continue with this pregnancy’ because of the challenges they might face travelling to England.
If they do decide to abort their pregnancy and can not travel, they will have to take the medical option and can be ‘labouring for days on end in a labour ward and have to go through a stillbirth while surrounded by newborns’.
‘Women should have the choice not to go through that.’
This does ‘terrible things’ to their mental health and can be ‘incredibly traumatic’, said Ms Grieve.
‘It’s wrong to force women to give birth to stillborn babies.’
Scotland’s Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said she ‘completely understands concerns raised by women forced to travel to access abortion services’
BPAS said they have spoken with many doctors who have been advocating for surgical abortions and spoken to the government about starting to provide surgical services.
Scotland’s Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: ‘Patient safety is always our highest priority, and I completely understand concerns raised by women forced to travel to access abortion services.
‘That is why we are working with NHS Boards and other key stakeholders to support women having later stage abortions in Scotland.’
Ms Minto confirmed that a short-life working group has been established to consider the available delivery options with NHS Boards.
She added: ‘The Scottish Government expects the Boards to meet the Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s standards relating to abortion as a minimum.
‘This means where an NHS Board cannot offer abortion services locally, they must provide an appropriate and person-centred care pathway for patients and support patients with travel and accommodation costs covered if patients do need to travel to England for treatment.’
