What should nurses and doctors do if they know a woman has taken an abortion pill bought online?

Our top story today - another big question in the abortion debate. What should doctors and nurses do if they know a woman has taken an abortion pill bought online? Should they report her? Hand her over to the police and the courts? The abortion debate has been raging this week after a woman received a suspended jail sentence for buying drugs online to terminate her pregnancy. This disclosure question for the health service came up on our show yesterday. It wasn't clear to us what the newly issued health service guidelines on abortion were saying. So we asked the Department of Health a very specific question:

• Can the Department confirm if they advise health service professionals to report to the police women who have confirmed use of abortion pills?

In reply, a Department spokesperson said: "It is important that any woman who feels she needs medical treatment is not deterred from seeking it. Women who are in need of medical assistance should always seek advice and treatment from their health professionals.

"Unless the woman herself provides the information, a health professional is unlikely to be able to tell whether a miscarriage has occurred naturally or has been caused by abortifacient drugs and if it has been, whether the drugs were administered lawfully (in Great Britain, for example) or otherwise.

"All health professionals have a legal and professional obligation to practice within the law and have an obligation to report activity they know to be unlawful."

Breedagh Hughes is from the Royal College of MIdwives And Dawn McAvoy is from the Evangelical Alliance