Proposals to allow women to have early medical abortions at home have provoked controversy. Women's Editor Christen Pears reports.

LORNA is a career girl, an ambitious young recruitment consultant who wants to progress as far as she can at work before she has a family. So when she discovered she was pregnant last year, there was no doubt in her mind about what to do. She had an abortion.

The pregnancy had not been planned. Lorna, from Sunderland, was on the pill but had been taking antibiotics for an eye infection. She did not realise it would make the pill ineffective.

"I was 28 at the time and I just wasn't ready. I had just been promoted and I wanted to concentrate on my career. I want to have kids at some point but not yet," she explains.

"There was never any question I would have an abortion and my boyfriend totally agreed with me. We had only been together for four months and we didn't even know if we'd still be together when the baby was born. It didn't make sense to go ahead.

"Having said that, it wasn't something I took lightly. It is a big decision and I wouldn't want to have to go through it again, but I knew it was right for me."

Last week, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service called for a change in the rules to make it easier for women to have an early medical abortion.

The abortion pill, RU486, also known as mifepristone, has been available for more than ten years but last year, the Government made it more widely available, as an alternative to surgical abortion.

The pill is taken in a hospital or clinic, under medical supervision. It works by altering the hormone levels in the body and detaching the foetus from the lining of the womb. The woman returns to the clinic 48 hours later to take a second drug, misoprostol, which causes the foetus to be expelled.

BPAS wants women to be able take the second drug at home 48 hours after having the first at the clinic and has applied to the Department of Health for approval to launch a study to prove the idea is acceptable and does not compromise safety.

It points out this is already standard practice in America for early medical abortion, which can be given for pregnancies of up to nine weeks.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the BPAS, says: "We think a woman should be able to obtain an abortion with as little hassle as possible.

''We feel she is already under enough stress as a result of an unwanted pregnancy and we want to make the whole process of obtaining an abortion as simply straightforward and stress-free as possible."

She says many women who came to BPAS for an early medical abortion said they resented returning to the clinic just to receive the second dose of drugs.

She pointed out that after taking the second drug, although some women stayed at the clinic for a few hours, around 80 per cent chose to go home.

Those who did so had access to a 24-hour helpline staffed by nurses in case of any problems or concerns.

Ms Furedi says there is no evidence to suggest it would be unsafe for women to take the second drug at home. ''Women experiencing a natural early miscarriage aren't confined to hospital and there's no need for women experiencing a drug-induced early miscarriage to be in hospital,'' she says.

Anti-abortion organisations have criticised the proposals, which they say would not be safe for women.

Nuala Scarisbrick, of the charity Life, describes the move was a "cynical ploy to get rid of women out of the clinic so they can get more women in".

Life believes chemical abortion is bad for women physically because of the high hormone doses involved, and there are numerous stories of extremely heavy bleeding, nausea and vomiting.

Lorna had her abortion five weeks into her pregnancy and experienced no difficulties. "Because I knew early on what I wanted to do, I was able to take the abortion pill. It wasn't particularly pleasant. There was some pain and I bled quite heavily - like a miscarriage - but I would rather have done that than had a surgical termination. It's less invasive. You don't have to have an anaesthetic and there are fewer risks of complications like infection."

She is backing BPAS' proposals. "Every woman has the right to choose. Abortion is legal and there are lots of reasons why someone might want to have one. You will still have to have the signatures of two doctors to get an abortion and if someone is going to have one, they are going to have one whether they can take the second pill at home or not. If you are sure about having an abortion, it makes sense to make it as easy as possible."