Let's make it easier to take the abortion pill BPAS' chief executive explains why she is taking the UK Department of Health to court over early medical abortion. On Friday 28 January, the High Court in London will hear a challenge to the way that early medical abortion is provided. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a non-profit-making charity that works in partnership with the National Health Service, is hoping to obtain a ruling that will make it easier for women to use the abortion pill. A judgement in BPAS' favour won't affect who can and can't have an abortion; it will only change the way that medication is given to women who meet the existing legal and medical requirements . The challenge could hardly be more modest. It simply attempts to introduce a more sensible, rational, clinically evidenced way to give abortion medication to women who have already been deemed fit to use it. The change to existing practise is so slight that it's surprising that a court judgement should be needed. It's even more surprising that the Department of Health should have engaged a leading QC to oppose it. EMA (Early Medical Abortion, aka the abortion pill) is a simple and safe procedure which is commonly used throughout Britain for abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy (that's 63 days after the first day of the woman's last period). The treatment involves taking two sets of pills, up to 48 hours apart, to induce a miscarriage. Its