whole generation of doctors was lost to the speciality. Meanwhile, pro-abortion doctors were given the important posts and consultancies. This about-face of the medical profession also has a rather more sordid side to it. Under the 1967 Act, abortions are allowed to take place in 'a place approved by the Secretary of State'. This led to the establishment in the seventies of private clinics specialising in abortions. For many, this was a licence to print money. Proprietors could, and still do, operate both a counselling service, advising pregnant women, and a clinic where they could be aborted. Since this practice began, various committees in the House have recommended that this financial link be broken. It still exists. For doctors, the clinics opened a profitable source of private practice. In 1986 eleven doctors specialising in abortion performed 60% of late abortions grossing at least £2 million. The profit motive seems to be clearly in play more than the Hippocratic Oath. The more abortions they performed, the more profit. Throughout the private abortion business about £12 million changed hands last year. The emphasis in these clinics has become 'day care' abortions. The method used is D & E. An experienced doctor can perform a D & E in minutes. One private practitioner has developed a system of cutting the umbilical cord in the womb in advance of the operation. He discovered that this procedure made the baby's body more pliable and so it could be extracted in larger pieces. The victims of this particular end of the trade are predominantly non-resident women. One article in the Sunday Mirror called 'The Charter of Tears' explains what happens to women who come from overseas to have an abortion in London:
A young girl walks into a travel agency to book a cut-price package tour. She seems anxious and afraid. The trip includes a jet flight and a stay in a tourist hotel but this is no carefree holiday in the sun. Instead, the girl is embarking on a lonely charter flight to heartache. She travels from Madrid ... she is driven to a hotel in central London. Later, she takes a forty-minute car ride to an elegant Victorian house in a smart suburban street. The house is an abortion clinic - or in the words of its critics, an abortion factory.... An abortion at Parkview costs between £130 and £385 - the more advanced the pregnancy the higher the charge. The clinic is run by London Nursing Home Ltd, which last year had a £2 million turnover. Most of the girls are from Spain or France, though some travel from Algeria. Many are past the 22-week pregnancy phase regarded as late abortions but not past 28 weeks. The 30-bed clinic was at the centre of a Department of Health investigation in 1985 after one of its clients, a 21-year-old Spanish student, bled to death when her abortion went wrong.... One girl said, 'I had my operation at 11 am and I was out by 2 pm.'