'Deceitful' GP who sent student daughter for late abortion to avoid embarrassment is struck off

By Beth Hale for the Daily Mail
Updated: 12:33 EDT, 3 February 2010

A GP who took her teenage daughter to Spain for a late-term abortion was branded 'deceitful' and 'dishonest' today as she was struck of the medical register.

Saroj Adlakha took daughter Shilpa Abrol, 18, to the Ginemedex Clinic, in Barcelona, for an abortion when she was 31 weeks pregnant - seven weeks past the 24-week legal limit in Britain.

The General Medical Council was told how the senior GP paid nearly £3000 for the procedure.

'Dishonest': Saroj Adlakha, left, took her daughter Shilpa Abrol to Spain for an abortion when she was 31 weeks pregnant - seven weeks past the limit in Britain

Miss Abrol, whose father is also a doctor, told the General Medical Council she assumed her mother had taken her to Spain for the procedure to avoid 'embarrassment' within the Indian community.

Adlakha arranged for the 'illegal' termination after her daughter, who was studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Essex University, was turned away from the Calthorpe Clinic in  Birmingham.                                                                                        

But the doctor was exposed in 2004 when she offered to help two undercover reporters do the same for their fictitious daughter.  

Mother and daughter faced prosecution for conspiracy to commit child destruction abroad but the charge was dropped two years later.

Now, however, she has been struck off the medical register.

The GMC ruled Adlakha was guilty of misconduct for a 'catalogue of serious breaches' after she was found to have been dishonest on  four occasions.

Adlakha did not attend yesterday's sanctions hearing in London.

But chairman Ralph Bergmann said the doctor's conduct suggested 'deep-seated attitudinal problems'.

He said: 'Your misconduct was repeated, took place  over a prolonged period of time and represented serious departures from the  relevant standards as set out in good medical practice.  

'The panel has expressed its concern regarding two  core features of this case, namely, your willingness to provide support, advice  and assistance to obtain an abortion which you knew or believed to be unlawful,  and multiple instances of deceit, lack of probity and dishonesty. 

Surgery: The Shilpa Medical Centre in Birmingham where Adlakha worked

'These failings, together with a total lack of demonstrable insight on your part are so serious as to be incompatible with  continuing to be a registered medical practitioner. '

The GMC had heard how Miss Abrol had already undergone one abortion, arranged by her mother, 10 months earlier when she discovered she was pregnant for a second time.

Miss Abrol told the GMC she had not realise she was pregnant and when she did she understood only that it was a 'late' pregnancy, but did not know how many weeks or believe she had been doing anything illegal.

The GMC heard the doctor was 'actively involved' in  arranging her daughter’s termination, going so far as to book her flights and  her clinic appointment.

Adlakha, who did not give evidence to the GMC, tried to cover up her actions and lied to police about her daughter's pregnancy.

Adlakha was running the Shilpa Medical Centre in  Kings Heath, Birmingham, at the time but had previously worked for the Calthorpe Clinic abortion centre in Edgbaston.

When she returned from Barcelona, the GP told her receptionist that she could 'lose her license' if she were found  out.

She was exposed when she offered another 'illegal' termination to the fictitious daughter 'Lucy' of two undercover reporters.

During various videotaped consultations, Adlakha confessed taking a 'friend's daughter' to the clinic, dating her termination  between 28 to 32 weeks in different conversations

Adlakha was suspended by the South Birmingham Primary Care Trust in December 2004 and withdrew her appeal against the NHS body  after she realised her daughter’s identity would be revealed.

She was then suspended by the GMC in February 2005 pending a misconduct hearing.