The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is a charity that sees over 100,000 women a year for reproductive healthcare services including pregnancy counselling, abortion care, miscarriage management and contraception at clinics across Great Britain.
BPAS exists to further women’s reproductive choices. We believe all women should have the right to make their own decisions in and around pregnancy, from the contraception they use to avoid pregnancy right the way through to how they decide to feed their newborn baby, with access to evidence-based information to underpin their choices and high-quality services and support to exercise them. Reproductive choice means the ability to access care and support for matters relating to reproductive health and wellbeing – from STI testing and cervical smears to menopause care. It also means the right to make one’s own decision about medical treatment free from restrictions based on pregnancy or the capacity to become pregnant.
We believe women should be trusted to make their own reproductive choices, with access to the care, support and evidence-based information required to fully exercise those choices. Through a combination of our service delivery, advocacy, campaigning, and research, BPAS aims to remove the barriers to exercising reproductive choice and autonomy. We want to put the technologies for reproductive control and self-care directly into the hands of those who need us where possible but are also committed to training and empowering healthcare staff who can provide support every step of the way.
We will provide services to the full extent of the law to enable women to make their own pregnancy decisions, and will systematically look for other areas where we can provide reproductive health support and care to those who need it. Not all services can or should be provided directly by BPAS, however where needs are not being met or failed, we will find ways to address them. We will campaign for choice across the reproductive spectrum, defending the reproductive rights of women and championing those who provide care and support for them. We will prioritise our service delivery, innovation and advocacy activity based on the question: if not BPAS, then who?