A MOTHER who lost her High Court battle for the right to be told if her teenage daughters sought abortion advice said that she had “no regrets whatsoever” about bringing the case.

Sue Axon, 52, said that she would now consider her options and help her pregnant 16-year-old daughter to prepare for motherhood.

Mr Justice Silber said yesterday that forcing a girl to tell her parents “may lead her to make a decision that she later regrets or to seek the assistance of an unofficial abortionist”.

He said that teenagers should always be encouraged to involve their parents, but ruled that in the “very unfortunate case” that they refused to do so, a medical professional could treat them in confidence.

Ms Axon, a divorced mother of five from Baguley, Manchester, said: “It didn’t go to plan but I have achieved something, because the judge has reinforced the guidelines that a young girl needs to understand all the implications . . . if she is to be allowed an abortion.”

The Department of Health had opposed Ms Axon’s claim that its guidance on confidentiality, issued in July 2004, “undermined” her role as a parent and infringed her parental rights under the European Convention of Human Rights. Caroline Flint, the Public Health Minister, said: “This judgment confirms that our guidance is fully in line with the law.”

She emphasised, though, that a child’s right to confidentiality was not absolute. She said: “Where a health professional believes that there is a risk to the health, safety or welfare of a young person which is so serious as to outweigh the young person’s right to privacy, the case should be referred through local child protection procedures.”

Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said: “Compulsory parental notification would have been a disaster, leading to young people staying away from services and risking unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.”

Yesterday’s ruling drew on the leading case of Gillick, but the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship (LCF) said it went further than that case in eroding the role of the family. It said: “The Gillick ruling decided that, in general, parents should be made aware of treatment decisions made for under 16s, and that it was only in exceptional circumstances that parents should not be informed.” Andrea Minichiello Williams, public policy officer for the LCF, added: “Only if abortions were risk-free could it be argued that parents need not be informed.”

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