On the day that the Abortion Act 1967 came into force, Saturday 27 April 1968, the first patients had their consultations in the front room of the then Chairman, Dr Martin Cole.
BPAS gained substantial media attention in early 2011, when the charity went to the High Court seeking a legal re-definition of 'treatment' under the terms of the Abortion Act, which would have enabled women to have administered the second drug used in the 'abortion pill' treatment in their own homes.
The judge in this case did not accept the definition of 'treatment' proposed by BPAS, but confirmed that the Secretary of State for Health has the power to approve women's homes as a 'class of place' where certain abortion drugs could be taken.
[5] In 2008 BPAS, along with other organisations in the Voice for Choice network, called for improvements to the abortion law during the Parliamentary debate over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill.
PAS held a treatment licence under the Act establishing the HFEA and continued to carry out artificial inseminations under its auspices.
In late 2004, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph presented a video to the British government (Health Secretary Dr John Reid and Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson) showing BPAS counsellors referring women whose pregnancies were too advanced for legal abortions in Britain (past 24 weeks) to a clinic in Barcelona, Spain.
The report stated unequivocally that BPAS's ability to provide abortion and reproductive counselling and services (within its mandate) had not in any way been compromised, and that no changes in funding should result.