There is ’shocking’ lack of information about abortion services available in the island following historic law reforms.

Dr Alex Allinson’s Abortion Reform Act was passed in 2019 and was widely welcomed.

Under the new law, abortion is permitted upon request up to 14 weeks, under specified circumstances including ’serious social grounds’ during the 15- to 24-week period, and in certain emergency or serious situations after 24 weeks.

But question marks have been put against the government’s handling of the implementation since the law was introduced.

Earlier this year, a Tynwald select committee asked for feedback on the act and it has published a report.

And the Campaign for Abortion Law Modernisation (CALM) is damning of the lack of signposting for services.

Lynn Dawson, of CALM, told the committee there were no leaflets available explaining what abortion services were available and how to access them, nor were there any posters to flag up where to go for a woman too afraid to ask at a GP surgery desk.

A Google search for the service brought up information from the Abortion Reform Network and CALM, but nothing from the Department of Health and Social Care that was supposed to be running the service.

’This is a truly shocking indictment of the Isle of Man Department of Health and its treatment of women,’ she said.

The phone number for the service - 01624 642521 - is not listed on the DHSC’s web page for women and children’s services, nor the family planning page. The only place it was found on the department’s website was in a news release from 2019, she said.

’After all the discussions and debates about how important it was to ensure ease of access for women who might find it difficult or embarrassing to approach their doctor, it is almost unbelievable that not a single government minister has followed up on this and insisted that the Department of Health properly publicise this service to make it easy for women to find.’

The social affairs policy review committee, chaired by Julie Edge MHK, will put the report before Tynwald next week.

The committee states: ’While we welcome the implementation of the Abortion Reform Act 2019, we conclude that there is a compelling need for significantly better public information on the availability in the island of abortion services. At the very least there should be leaflets and posters in GPs’ surgeries.’

The committee’s review followed a request last year from Dr Allinson - now a government minister - for post-implementation scrutiny.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service provides the phone line service, but in its evidence it calls for better advertising.

The Abortion Law Reform Act was brought in after extensive scrutiny in the Tynwald branches and in the shadow of determined campaigns from supporters and opponents outside of parliament.

Under the old law, termination was legal up to 24 weeks where medical practitioners considered there was substantial risk the child would not survive birth, would die shortly afterwards or would be seriously handicapped.

Pregnancies resulting from rape, incest or sexual assault could be terminated up to 12 weeks, but women had to provide an affidavit attesting to the cause of the pregnancy. Terminations on social grounds were not allowed.