COUNSELLORS at allegedly independent clinics in Britain are wrongly warning women that abortion could lead to a propensity to sexually abuse children.

The women are also being wrongly warned during sessions that an abortion could lead to serious health damage, including an increased risk of breast cancer, the London Telegraph reports.

Clients of the clinics are also being mistakenly told the terminating a pregnancy could leave them unable to carry future pregnancies to full term.

Reporters from the Telegraph secretly recorded counsellors at two Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs). The revelations support increased calls for better regulation of abortion services, amid fears that the advice offered by pro-life and anti-abortion clinics is not reliable.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “It is vital that any woman considering an abortion is offered impartial and non-judgmental counselling, accurately advising her of all her options, so that she can make an informed decision.”

Dr Kate Guthrie, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the UK’s medical authority on pregnancy and women’s reproductive health, said there was no scientific evidence to suggest an abortion put women at a greater risk of breast cancer or abusing a child.

She also said that the risk of being left sterile by an abortion in Britain is “very, very low” and it is “absolutely wrong” that women would be 25 per cent less likely to carry pregnancy to full term following an abortion, as one of the counsellors maintained.

More than 100 CPCs have been established across England, claiming to provide independent advice to women on pregnancy termination, although many are thought to be linked to religious groups. As they are privately run and operated independently of the public health system, they are unregulated by any official body.

One of the reporters pretending to be pregnant was told at the Central London Women’s Centre (CLWC) that there is “an increased statistical likelihood of child abuse” because women had to break “natural barriers that are around the child that you don’t cross” in order to terminate a pregnancy.

The same adviser also said that women who had terminations were 25 percent less likely to be able to carry a pregnancy to full term.

At the Alma Pregnancy Advisory Service (APAS), a counsellor warned a second reporter about similar “risks”, adding “there’s also a link with breast cancer”.

The independent counselling services are favoured by anti-abortion campaigners, who believe there is a potential conflict of interest in counselling from an organisation that also carries out terminations.

A report due for release this month by Brook, a national sexual health charity in the UK, is expected to further document how some CPCs are giving women inaccurate medical information.

At the CLWC, a reporter was told by an adviser that an abortion carried various risks, including “sterility”. During the appointment last month, the counsellor also told the reporter that infection was “quite common”.

“As with any operation you know you are introducing something from outside the body into the inside of the body and there’s always a risk but with abortion there’s also a particular risk of, obviously the instruments that are used are sharp and they can cut the wall of the womb”, the counsellor said.

Dr Guthrie, said because women are “always” screened before an abortion and “every women also gets a routine course of antibiotics after the abortion” the risk of infection is also minimal.

Dr Sarah Wollaston, a former doctor who is now a Conservative MP and a member of the Health Select Committee, said: “Women who go to a centre which purports to give impartial advice that is fundamentally anti-abortion in its stance, but doesn’t openly say so, is totally unacceptable.

“Now is the time for the Secretary of State [Jeremy Hunt] to order a review of the whole abortion counselling process.”

Mr Hunt declined to comment.