Paramedic who secretly administered abortion drugs to lover is struck off

A paramedic has been struck off after secretly injecting his lover with abortion drugs during a sexual encounter.

Stephen Doohan, who was married on the time, began an affair together with his victim after they met in Ibiza. Doohan later separated from his wife and it soon became apparent that his recent lover was pregnant.

Despite agreeing together to maintain the child, Doohan crushed up some abortion drugs and secretly injected them into his lover while they were having sex.

The woman later had a miscarriage and suspected that Doohan can have done something. Doohan convinced her to lie about what happened and apparently tried to smooth things over with a barrage of gifts.

However, the girl complained to the ambulance service, for which Doohan worked, who began an investigation and informed the police.

Doohan pleaded guilty to 2 charges and was and was jailed for 10 and a half years. He has now been struck off in consequence of a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service hearing, which he didn’t attend. The hearing ruled that Doohan caused “ongoing emotional and psychological harm” to his victim.

The case bears similarities to that of Stuart Worby, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison after obtaining abortion drugs via the controversial “pills-by-post” scheme and giving them to his pregnant girlfriend without her knowledge.

The woman, who desired to keep what would have been her first baby, has been left infertile.

In February 2025 Worby’s sentence was increased to 17 years after it was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.  

The pills-by-post scheme has been criticised for being open to other abuses. Introduced in the course of the Covid lockdowns, the scheme allotted with the necessity for a girl searching for an abortion to have an in-person consultation with a medical skilled. In one case, a girl gave false information over the phone and aborted her 8-month-old baby, well beyond the legal limit and at an increased risk to herself.

Last month, peers within the House of Lords voted down an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that will have reinstated in-person consultations prior to having an at-home abortion.