British Pregnancy Advisory Service

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is a British charity whose stated purpose is to support reproductive choice by advocating and providing high quality, affordable services to prevent or end unwanted pregnancies with contraception or by abortion."

BPAS was founded in 1968 in Birmingham as the Birmingham Pregnancy Advisory Service. On the day that the Abortion Act 1967 came into force, Saturday 27 April 1968, the first patients had their consultations in the front room of the then Chairman, Dr Martin Cole. At that time patients had to travel to London for termination, but a clinic was opened in Birmingham 18 months later.

In addition to providing abortion counselling and treatment at over 40 centres across England, Wales and Scotland (over 93% of clients have their abortion treatment funded by the NHS), BPAS also provides emergency contraception, vasectomy and sterilisation, and vasectomy reversal services. BPAS's South London Clinic was one of the first recipients of the Department of Health 'You're Welcome' award in March 2009, for providing high standards of health care to young people.

BPAS gained substantial media attention in early 2011, when the charity went to the High Court seeking a legal re-definition of 'treatment' under the terms of the Abortion Act, which would have enabled women to have administered the second drug used in the 'abortion pill' treatment in their own homes. BPAS argued that such a change would have brought UK practice into line with best clinical practice, and with practice in countries such as the USA, Sweden, and France; and that it would have dramatically improved the experience of early medical abortion for women. The judge in this case did not accept the definition of 'treatment' proposed by BPAS, but confirmed that the Secretary of State for Health has the power to approve women's homes as a 'class of place' where certain abortion drugs could be taken.

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