Britain’s Socialised Health Service Should Give Americans Free Abortions: Medical Association

A medical trade union in Britain will lobby the government to provide ‘free’ abortions for Americans in the wake of the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to the state level, the UK’s British Medical Association trade union will lobby its government to provide free abortions to all foreigners — including Americans — whether their own country will pay for the procedure or not. British taxpayers, presumably, would pick up the bill.

Members of the British trade union also agreed to publicly condemn the U.S. court’s ruling, joining the likes of so-called ‘Conservative’ Party Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who previously lambasted the move as a “big step backwards”.

According to a report by The Telegraph, the BMA approved a motion that would allow it to push the British state to “support the provision of free and safe abortion care to all nationals seeking this in the UK, without subjecting them to the overseas patient upfront tariff, regardless of borders” in an emergency session reportedly held on Wednesday.

“Abortion is essential health care,” Marina Politis, the individual who originally proposed the motion, said. “In [some] cases, the US Supreme Court decision is a death sentence. In other, less risky, pregnancies, this decision still removes an essential right of the individual to choose what happens to their own body.”

Politis went on to argue that the UK should be providing “safe abortion care to all nationals”, not just Americans, before asking her colleagues to “make a statement here today showing that we do not support this dangerous erosion of reproductive rights, which,” she claimed, “is also an erosion of human rights”.

The American Medical Association appeared to welcome the actions of the BMA, with a representative from the U.S. lobbying group thanking its British counterpart.

“The AMA is thankful to the British Association for adding your voice recognising access to essential medical care as a fundamental human right,” AMA representative Dr Lisa Egbert reportedly told those in the BMA.

The British Medical Association is far from the only body in the UK to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion, with many individuals and institutions across the country speaking out against the foreign court’s decision.

Included within the ranks of such critics is the country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, with the politician decrying the move as a “big step backwards”.

Politicians to the left of Johnson were also quick to condemn the ruling, with both the leader of the leftist Labour Party, Keir Starmer, taking time to lambast the court’s conclusion on the matter.

“Today’s devastating Supreme Court decision is a massive setback for women’s rights in the United States of America,” Starmer said. “The right of women to make their own decisions about their own bodies is a fundamental human right.”

European politicians — including the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron — have also been quick to talk on the issue, something that appears to have irked French populist leader Marine Le Pen, who has accused the political mainstream of using abortion to distract from other issues.

The reality is that [Macron’s] En Marche [party] is carrying out a political diversion because it does not want the focus to be on the main concerns of the French people today and their difficulties, which is purchasing power, which is security, which is immigration out of control,” she reportedly said, arguing that abortion really was not being seriously opposed in France at the current moment.