Just 1% of trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists in Britain are opting to train for abortion procedures, it has been revealed. In a piece for the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, its editor, Dr Sandy Goldbeck-Wood, predicts a “crisis” in the lack of suitably qualified doctors able or willing to undertake abortion provision. However, John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said of the revelation: “Might not this extraordinarily low percentage reflect a natural human reluctance amongst trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists to kill babies in the womb?”

Meanwhile, Deputy Director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute, Simon Calvert, said: “The fact that only 1% of trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists are taking higher training in abortion is not a ‘crisis’ for medicine, but it may reflect the crisis of conscience that many medics feel about abortion. The more we develop treatments for unborn babies, the more people realise how indefensible abortion is.”