Bookdrunk has already picked up on the latest round of smears by Nadine Dorries, the MP for Mid Narnia, which goes as follows:

There is not one NHS hospital in the UK which will carry out abortion over 16 weeks other than Kings in London and Newcastle, they will only operate in cases of extreme need, when the continuation of the pregnancy is a threat to the health of the mother.

This is why all abortions over sixteen weeks are carried out by abortion only private clinics. Some may describe that as an industry.

‘Not one’ you’ll have noticed means two but otherwise Bookdrunk explains part of the situation very nicely:

One problem with Dorries’ claim is that a large number of NHS trusts have contracts with private providers, primarily bpas (formerly the British Pregnancy Advisory Service). So an abortion being paid for under the NHS could easily take place in a bpas clinic. In fact, bpas currently provides 50% of NHS-funded abortions undertaken by specialist agencies.

There’s another reason why the NHS uses private providers for abortions taking place after 16 weeks gestation that has nothing to do with the (non) existence of an ‘abortion industry’. The vast majority of abortions taking place at or after 16 weeks are surgical abortions and one of the little quirks of NHS hospital design is that in many cases the Ob/Gyn surgical facilities are located in the same building as the hospital’s maternity ward and delivery suite. All of which makes perfect sense from a clinical point of view, as its keeps all the machines that go ping in the same location, but still its not really the kind of environment you want to be going to for an abortion. In fact, and speaking from personal experience, its not really the ideal kind of set-up you want to be arriving at, at 2am in the morning, with a partner who’s having a miscarriage at 20 weeks because while it might be an arrangement that scores 10 out of 10 for practicality, when you’re in that situation it scores precisely fuck all for sensitivity.

So, from that point of view, its makes perfect sense to let the private sector handle abortions in their nice, discreet, private clinics/hospitals purely from a ‘let’s not rub the poor sod’s face in it’ standpoint.

Elsewhere, actually on the website of the Bedford Today newspaper, Dorries is still peddling her little hoax:

Nadine Dorries MP and a prominent doctor are at odds over the use of a controversial picture on her website.

The Mid Bedfordshire Conservative has used an image which shows unborn Samuel Armas at 21 weeks’ gestation, apparently reaching out to grasp the finger of a surgeon operating on him while still inside the womb.

She is claiming its use is “correct beyond reasonable doubt”.

Can we just save a bit of time and simple have her sectioned because if she believes that then she is completely fucking deluded.

But the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr Joseph Bruner, formerly of the Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA, where the operation took place, has long refuted claims that the foetus clung onto his finger.

Dr Bruner said: “It has become an urban legend.

“The baby did not reach out. Samuel and his mother, Julie, were under anaesthesia and could not move. The baby was not aware of what was going on.”

Yep, that the truth as told by the doctor who actually did the op, but…

However, Mrs Dorries remains certain it was correct to use the picture to gain support for her campaign to see the upper limit at which abortion takes place, reduced from 24 to 20 weeks.

She said: “Before putting this photo up I spoke to numerous obstetricians and gynaecologists from University College Hospital, as well as US senators who used the picture as evidence in an enquiry to ban partial birth abortions.

Numerous? As in John Wyatt perhaps?

“I’m not saying that it is 100 per cent certain the photo is genuine, as doctors can always be wrong. But what I’ve put on my website is correct beyond reasonable doubt.”

Huh? The photo is genuine, its just the description of it given by the photographer who took it that’s complete and utter bullshit, hence the doctor who did the surgery assertion that this is all an urban myth.

It’s bad enough that she has to lie about this, but what makes it worse is that she can’t even manage to lie convincingly.

The picture has been used all over the world by anti-abortion campaigners since it was taken in 1999.

But Dr Bruner’s claims that the baby was anaesthetised and therefore unable to feel pain have presented Mrs Dorries with another line of argument she finds hard to believe.

She said: “The same people using the argument that Samuel was under anaesthetic so could not feel a thing are the same people who also say that abortion up to 24 weeks is acceptable because a foetus at that point cannot feel pain.

“They use whatever argument suits them at the time.”

No, we used the clinical evidence – the only one using whatever argument suits then at the time is Dorries.

While Mrs Dorris is a campaigner for the upper abortion limit to be reduced, she still considers herself to be pro-abortion.

She said: “I’m not anti-abortion, I’m not pro-life, and I’m not looking at this from a religious standpoint. I’m in favour of abortions, in favour of making them as easy and accessible as possible, as long as they are early and not being used as a form of contraception.

“That is what I am campaigning for.”

Bullshit.

I only hope that the people of Bedfordshire are not as gullible as Dorries clearly takes them for and can see her for what she is… a fucking disgrace.