Edinburgh Napier student midwife suspended over pro-life posts

An Edinburgh Napier student midwife has been suspended after posting on social media about her anti-abortion views.

Sara Spencer, 30, was put on special leave from her NHS Fife placement after responding to a question on a priavate social media group about whether midwives might opt out of providing abortions. 

In one comment, she wrote: “Given that my moral beliefs include a foetus is a child and it is wrong to kill children, there is no circumstance in which I would not object to abortion.”

The mother-of-three had joined a private social media group for midwives and trainees in which she responded to a question about midwives opting out of termination procedures. She posted that she was anti-abortion, alongside the official guidance on conscientious objection.

Abortion has been legal under certain conditions in the UK since the 1967 Abortion Act: since its passage, the act has been unsuccessfully challenged several times by various pro-life organisations. Currently, the NHS offers free abortions to those who meet the criteria – conscientious objectors are not legally obliged to perform them.

Spencer told BBC Scotland News: “I knew I was engaging in a very emotive topic but I don’t think I was quite prepared to be pulled aside at work by my line manager a week later.”

Spencer has called for health boards to be more conscious of freedom of speech rights – NHS Fife said the matter was being handled by Edinburgh Napier University. 

She was cleared of expressing her beliefs inappropriately following a fitness to practice investigation, during which she feared her “career was over before it had even begun”. 

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Edinburgh Napier placed Spencer on special leave from her community placement with NHS Fife, after which a fitness to practice investigation found she had no case to answer. She returned to her studies in July, where she completed a hospital placement and said she was “welcomed by staff.”

Regarding her special leave, Spencer said: “I felt like it brought back memories of being bullied and ostracised in grammar school,” 

“Just three months into my training I felt like I was being told you’re not welcome.”

Currently on maternity leave, Spencer hopes to return to her midwifery studies next year.

An Edinburgh Napier University spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment on individual student circumstances.

“All midwifery students are expected to abide by the code of practice set out by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.”

NHS Fife told The Tab that the conduct of students on placement is a matter for their university.

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