Doctors are requesting a police investigation into an abortion of a pregnant woman’s healthy baby at 28 weeks, four weeks after the British legal limit.

A GP raised the alarm after a 22-year-old woman demanded a termination when more than six months’ pregnant. He refused and a colleague referred her for counselling to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a charity which runs a chain of private abortion clinics.

When the woman returned to the surgery about a different matter several weeks later, she was no longer pregnant and told the GP that she “had it sorted privately”.

The GP reported his dilemma over the case on a secure website for doctors – prompting dozens of his colleagues to urge him to report the case immediately to the police.

He said on the website, doctors.net.uk, “I feel decidedly uneasy about what has happened here. I picked up a late pregnancy and it doesn’t seem right that, as far as her medical record is concerned, the baby vanished without explanation.”

He added: “My examination, followed by an ultrasound that clearly states 28 weeks, constitute evidence that she was past 24 weeks. For someone to have taken money to perform an illegal and damaging service cannot be condoned and, if I let this go, I am condoning it.”

More than 90% of babies born at 28 weeks in Britain survive. Medical advances resulting in more babies surviving below 24 weeks have prompted a parliamentary bill to reduce the limit.

In Britain, abortion for social reasons is legal only up to 24 weeks. Abortion is permitted up to full term if the baby is at risk of being born with a severe disability or if continuing with the pregnancy will cause the mother grave and permanent injury.

When the woman attended the GP’s practice in February, he explained that her pregnancy was too advanced for an abortion to take place. However, she was adamant that she did not want to have the baby, refused to see a midwife and consulted with another doctor in the same practice.

The GP said: “My colleague saw her and she was obviously in a lot of distress and he agreed to write to BPAS and see what they say. Personally, I don’t see that BPAS can offer any acceptable explanation. If they say they did a second scan and she was 23 weeks and six days, or if they say that she was on the verge of suicide, I am not sure that I can leave it. It is the job of the police to investigate.”

However, there is no evidence that the woman went to BPAS or that staff there arranged the abortion. It is not yet known where the woman had the termination or whether the mother or baby developed a complication after leaving the surgery which might have made it legal to undergo an abortion.

British clinics are allowed to provide contact details of overseas doctors who carry out late abortions but cannot refer women for the treatment. In 2005, a Department of Health report found that BPAS gave out the telephone numbers of overseas abortion clinics too readily to British patients.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS, said she was unaware of the case of the woman and insisted that BPAS would not have performed an abortion after 24 weeks: “I can state categorically that, if her gestation was shown by a scan to be later than 23 weeks and five days, she would not be able to have her pregnancy terminated.”

Julia Millington, spokeswoman for Alive and Kicking, an anti-abortion campaign group, said: “Opposition to late abortion among the public, parliamentarians and the medical profession has never been stronger. This matter must be investigated by the police.”

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