Two doctors who were accused of agreeing to abort a baby because she was a girl will not face charges because medical rules on the issue are too vague, the Director of Public Prosecutions said today.
Keir Starmer QC said an initial decision by one of his colleagues not to prosecute the doctors — which attracted criticism from his predecessor and others — was “properly taken and sound” and should stand.
He said the law required prosecutors to prove that the doctors “did not carry out a sufficiently robust assessment” of the health of the woman concerned before coming to their decision, but that the “limited” medical guidelines on the issue made this impossible.
He added the fact that doctors were allowed to make the judgment on paper, without seeing the patient, also hindered the prospects of a successful prosecution.
Mr Starmer said it was now for others to decide whether medical guidelines should be tightened, but added: “I appreciate that others may disagree with the decision arrived at in this case, but I am content that the decision not to prosecute on the facts in these cases was the right decision.”
An undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph found that two doctors allegedly agreed to authorise an abortion on gender grounds. That is theoretically illegal, but today’s comments by Mr Starmer suggest the rules are insufficiently clear to allow the law to be applied without changes to guidelines given to doctors.
