Abortion services are not given enough priority in the NHS, leading to women being denied access to safe methods of termination, a report claimed today.
Sexual health charity FPA, formerly the Family Planning Association, is calling for a change in the law to allow women to more easily exercise their right to choose to have an abortion as early as possible.
Its report - Early Abortions: Promoting Real Choice for Women - calls for women to be able to have an abortion within 72 hours of first contacting a health professional.
The charity also highlighted a "postcode lottery" of services that varied widely across England. In 2001, 79% of abortions were carried out before 10 weeks in north-east Lincolnshire. But in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk the proportion of early abortions was just 26%.
The FPA also called for the NHS to fund at least 90% of abortions, again highlighting wide variations across the country. While the NHS paid for 96% of abortions in Coventry, this fell to only 50% in Kingston and Richmond in Surrey.
FPA chief executive Anne Weyman said: "Many women find themselves ruled out of suitable, safe methods of early abortion due to delays in the system or inadequate funding at local level. Such inequalities in service provision are deplorable and unjust."
Dr Caroline Mawer, a consultant in public health and co-author of the report, said: "Real improvements could be made to waiting times and choice of abortion method for women by extending the role nurses already play in providing abortions and training more doctors to perform uncomplicated surgical abortion."
The FPA said changes to the 1967 Abortion Act would help improve access to early abortions, such as allowing them to be carried out in GP surgeries and family planning and sexual health clinics. Trained nurses should also be able to carry out early surgical and medical abortions, the charity said.
Dr Mawer said the need for two doctors' signatures before an abortion could go ahead should also be abolished and the procedure treated like any other.
Ms Weyman added: "We need an abortion service fit for the 21st century. Current procedures are in severe need of an overhaul and are failing women at a time when they are most vulnerable.
"Services must be modernised to incorporate changes that will benefit the one in three women who will have an abortion during her lifetime."
A Department of Health spokeswoman said prevention of unintended pregnancies was one of the "key aims" of the government's sexual health strategy. "We are committed to providing access to abortion services within the current legal framework. We have invested over £5m in these services in the last two years to tackle regional variations in access and availability.
"In 2001 we set a new standard of three weeks for the maximum time a woman should wait from the first appointment with her GP or other referring doctor. We are closely monitoring primary care trusts to measure the improvements being made and once there is clear evidence that the three week standard is being met across the country, we will revise the standard to help drive down access times further."
She added: "The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that at least 75% of induced abortions should be funded by the NHS. In 2002, 78% of terminations were NHS funded."
