News and Opinion

On Tuesday 23 October 2018 Diana Johnson MP is bringing forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill to the House of Commons. She is seeking to introduce one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world right across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

While Ten Minute Rule Bills rarely become law and the vote will not be binding on the Government, the abortion lobby are attempting to use a vote on this Bill to create momentum in Parliament, ahead of bringing forward an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill to introduce these radical changes to abortion legislation.

It is vital that we have as many MPs as possible vote against this radical proposal to ensure we can stop it gaining momentum in Parliament.

You can help by urgently writing to your MP asking them to attend the debate on Tuesday October 23rd and encourage them to vote against this radical bill.

This only takes two minutes by using the email function we have set-up – you can access it by clicking here.

Further information on the Bill is available in the short briefing note here.

We know that MPs will be receiving a large number of emails from abortion campaigners pushing them to support this proposal. It is vital that your MP is aware of the extreme nature of what is being proposed here and that many constituents are encouraging them to vote against this Bill.

Please do therefore ask your friends to write to their MP and share this on social media.

Right To Life have welcomed the Home Secretary’s decision not to introduce nationwide ‘buffer zones’ outside abortion clinics today.

Following a national review, Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced this morning that the implementation of national buffer zones would not be a proportionate response and that adequate legislation already exists to protect women from any protesters who are causing harm, not offering help.

Mothers who provide peaceful, practical help and support for women outside abortion centres have welcomed the Home Secretary’s decision as a victory for the women who have received this help from them in the past and for those who will now still be able receive it in the future.

A spokesperson for Right To Life, Clare McCarthy, said:

“The help these groups offer women outside abortion clinics is often indispensable and life-changing. Many of the women who have received help outside abortion clinics credit it with saving their child’s life.

The volunteers outside the abortion clinics offer holistic practical and emotional support that can really transform the situation these women find themselves in. They offer women financial help, counselling, help with accommodation and baby clothes – the type of support that is certainly not being offered inside the abortion clinics.

With this vital help, many women find the strength they need to go on to keep their baby. This morning’s announcement is a great victory for mothers who will both receive this help in the future and for those who will continue to be able to offer it.”

Fiona Bruce MP, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, also welcomed the decision and said:

“This is a win for both the mothers who have been and will be helped outside abortion clinics and for the volunteers who give up their free time to offer help to these women.

The evidence gathered in the review has found that predominantly, pro-life activities outside abortion clinics are peaceful. In some places this has been the case for over twenty years. The volunteers themselves are committed to praying for and, if requested, to providing non-judgemental, practical support for women in crisis. As the statement makes clear, adequate legislation already exists so that the police have the powers to act in the extremely rare event of a non-peaceful protest.

I welcome the decision of the Home Secretary Sajid Javid to stand up for the long-established freedoms of expression and association in this country, and am grateful to him for listening to Members of Parliament on this important issue.

We now hope to see local authorities follow suit in rejecting the imposition of ‘buffer zones’ at local level across the country”.

ENDS

• For additional quotes and media interviews contact Clare McCarthy on 078 336 61532 or email press@righttolife.org.uk

Right To Life spoke out today against the Minister for Health, Matt Hancock’s decision to allow for the administration of misoprostol away from medical supervision and oversight.

They criticised the decision and called it a ‘risky and reckless’ approach to healthcare. They called on the Minister for Health, Matt Hancock, to instead introduce positive changes in policy for vulnerable women and girls during his time as minister to counter the high rates of abortions in the UK.

They also highlighted the issues of safety and risk of abuse associated with ‘home’ abortions.

A spokesperson for Right to Life, Clare McCarthy said:

“Self-administering these strong drugs is not to be taken lightly and the utmost quality of care should be provided to these women – especially those who suffer from complications afterwards.

A study of 42,600 early abortions in Finland – where there is good registry data, unlike England and Wales – found that six weeks post abortion, complications after medical abortions were four times higher than after surgical – 20% compared to 5.6%.

“Irish Obstetrician Dr. Peter Bolyan, who campaigned for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland has admitted that: ‘there are serious dangers when women take [abortion pills] without supervision. We have knowledge of women who have taken them in excessive dosage and that can result in catastrophe for a woman such as a rupture of the uterus with very significant haemorrhage… And if that happens in the privacy of a woman’s home or perhaps in an apartment somewhere, that can have very, very serious consequences for women. So, it’s really important that these tablets are…dealt with in a supervised way…’

“Abortion clinics must be able to accurately track women during and after a medical abortion in order to provide the best safety and care to a post-abortive woman. This change in law would overlook this provision of care creating a potentially dangerous medical situation for women who are at risk. It leaves vulnerable and isolated women even more at risk and recklessly alone.

“The ‘home’ abortion is not a safe or sensible solution for women. It will significantly reduce the supervision and care that is provided to women during a medical abortion.

“Taking the abortion pill away from medical supervision totally avoids dealing with the real issues facing women in that situation. It makes no provision for real, affirmative aftercare for these women potentially leading to further emotional and medical risk.

“The government needs to address the reasons women seek out abortion services in such high numbers in this country, often because of; vulnerability, isolation, lack of financial or emotional support, or pressure from a partner.

“Furthermore, this proposal poses a threat to vulnerable girls who are at risk from sex-trafficking or child-sex abuse, as the ‘home’ abortion could be used by their abusers as a means to more easily cover up trafficking or abuse scandals.

“Women’s safety or health should never be compromised for the sake of convenience or profit.

“Women are worth more than cheap abortions. We are calling on the Minister for Health, Matt Hancock, to put women first in any policy that is passed under his time as Minister.”

ENDS

For additional quotes and media interviews contact Clare McCarthy: 078 336 61532

Editors notes

• Research by pro-abortion authors that found that for women over seven weeks the failure rate of medical abortions is up to 33 per cent: Lohr et al, 2007. Oral mifepristone and buccal misoprostol administered simultaneously for abortion: a pilot study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17707719; Mulligan, Messenger, 2011. Mifepristone in South Australia The first 1343 tablets. https://www.racgp.org.au/download/documents/AFP/2011/May/201105mulligan.pdf
• The quote from Dr. Peter Boylan can be found here: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/women-in-ireland-should-not-take-abortion-pills-says-harris-1.3459882
• Further reading on the issues with home use of misoprostol:
  • https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/abortion-pills-from-the-back-street-to-the-bathroom/
  • https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/abortion-back-back-streets/
  • https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/philippa-taylor-true-horror-home-abortion-pill/

On August 08th, a Bill legalising abortion-on-demand for any reason up to 14 weeks, and up to birth on the grounds of conception after sexual crime, life-limiting disabilities, and safeguarding maternal life, was defeated in the Argentinean Senate by 38-31.

In the wake of the welcome vote, RTL Executive Officer Peter D. Williams appeared on BBC News (World) to hail the defeat of the abortion Bill and defend right-to-life protections for unborn children:

Dear Senadoras y Senadores,

We write to you as you consider the legislation currently before the Argentine Senate which proposes to allow abortion on demand up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

This legislation would, by design, remove the right to life from the unborn child at the earliest stages of development. The right to life is a core fundamental right in international human rights law. There is no right to abortion in human rights law; in Europe, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has reiterated this fact on numerous occasions. Furthermore, Argentina ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990; the preamble of the Convention declares as follows;

“[T]he child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth” [Emphasis added].

The unborn child is a living human being and is entitled to all of the same rights as other members of the human family. The consistent pressure to introduce abortion in Argentina from foreign organisations lacks a basis in international law and should be ignored.

The destruction of an unborn child up to 14 weeks of pregnancy ignores the scientific realities that the unborn baby has arms, legs, toes, fingers, ears and a face at the 10-12 weeks stage of pregnancy. The ending of pregnancy by taking the life of the unborn child for no medical reason whatsoever is not healthcare.

We would urge Argentina not to make the mistakes of other countries by accepting this legislation. A truly compassionate solution to an unwanted pregnancy is to offer all the necessary support to a woman to use the adoption process to place her baby with a loving family if she does not wish to raise the child. This offers the baby an opportunity to grow up in an environment where they are cherished.

Abortion is not compassionate for either the woman or the child. Real compassion is based on protecting life, not ending it.

A line is crossed when we take away the right to life. We respectfully urge you to uphold true human rights and compassion by rejecting legislation that would remove the right to life from the unborn child. By rejecting the proposed legislation, you would be acting to protect the most vulnerable member of the human family – the unborn child.

Yours sincerely,

Lord Alton of Liverpool & Senator Ronan Mullen

This week the abortion lobby are running a large online and in-Parliament campaign trying to force the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, to fast-track the date that the draft Domestic Abuse Bill is brought forward to Parliament so they can hijack this Bill and amend it to introduce their extreme abortion proposal to Parliament. If they are successful, we could see the introduction of one of the world’s most radical abortion regimes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Sajid is currently being inundated with emails and tweets from the public on this. They are doing this to give him the impression that there is genuine public demand for the abortion lobby’s radical proposals.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

To show Sajid that there are equally many people that want him to stand strong on this, we have launched a petition to him.

We launched it at lunchtime yesterday and have already had a fantastic response with over 6000 people signing, but we need many more signatures on the petition so that it is very clear to Sajid Javid that he should not give in to the demands of the abortion lobby.

Please click the button below to sign the petition – it only takes 1-minute.

Click here to sign the petition to Sajid Javid now

If you have time after signing the petition, we had included some additional actions below that will help get more signatures on the petition and help support Sajid Javid in standing strong against the abortion lobby’s demands.

1. If you are on Twitter, please click here to tweet Sajid Javid with our short video message for him.
2. If you are on Facebook, please click here to LIKE our Facebook page and then share our short video message to Sajid Javid which includes a message and link that will encourage your friends to sign the petition.
3. Forward this email onto some friends asking them to sign the petition to Sajid Javid.

Thank you to everyone that wrote to their MP last week about the threat from abortion lobbyists to try and impose abortion on Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, now the lobby team at abortion provider BPAS and Stella Creasy MP have decided to go one step further while they have some momentum on the issue and are now proposing to introduce a radical abortion regime right across England and Wales also.

Today at around 2:30pm, they have secured an emergency three-hour debate where they are likely to push for a vote at the end.

While the vote will not be binding on the Government, it will put enormous pressure on them to not only impose abortion on Northern Ireland but also introduce one of the most radical abortion laws in the world to England and Wales.

You can help stop this by urgently writing to your MP asking them to attend the debate, speak against these extreme proposals and if it goes to a vote, encourage them to vote against these proposals. This only takes two minutes on our website by clicking the button below.

Please click here to email your MP now

Please note that if you read this after 2:30pm on Tuesday 5 June it is still going to be useful for you to send an email to your MP so they are aware of the extreme nature of what is being proposed.

For further information on the proposals, see Fiona Bruce MP’s article on this development by clicking here.

We know that again MPs are receiving a large number of emails from abortion campaigners pushing them to support this proposal. It is vital that your MP is aware of the extreme nature of what is being proposed here and that many constituents are encouraging them to oppose these proposals.

Please do therefore ask your friends to write to their MP and share this on social media.

Speaking in Clitheroe, at the Bank Holiday Monday Right To Life Clitheroe Sponsored Walk of Witness, David (Lord) Alton reminded walkers that Mother Teresa of Calcutta had said that in the struggle to safeguard the sanctity of human life that, “we are not called upon to be successful, but faithful”.

Reflecting on the Irish referendum, Lord Alton said that the sponsored walk through Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, to raise funds for Right To Life, was “a chance to both witness and to express solidarity with the three quarters of a million Irish people who had voted against removing protection for the unborn child from the Irish constitution”. He noted, “they campaigned under the slogans that ‘both lives matter’ and that we must always ‘love both’ – mother and child – this should remain the clarion call of the right-to-life movement”.

Lord Alton went on to say that, “No one ever said this would be an easy fight paved with victories. But every life saved, every mind changed, is how we must measure success”.

Lord Alton, whose late mother was a native Irish speaker, has along with his children Irish as well as British Citizenship; and he reflected that anyone who loved Ireland and its people would inevitably “feel dispirited and distressed by this outcome”.

He added that “Every abortion is a tragedy. With one abortion in England every three minutes, Ireland will come to regret following the British law – a law that  allows abortion up to and even during birth in the case of disability – leading to the death of 90% of babies with Down’s syndrome detected in the womb”.

He said: “It was bordering on the obscene to watch people celebrating an event that will lead to the ending of innocent life. Ireland will become like Ramah where Rachel was found weeping and mourning the children that are no more”.

“The spectacle of crowds gathering in castle Yard in Dublin, where mobs once gathered to cheer the public  execution of prisoners, was distasteful in the extreme.  And now they will seek to do the same in Northern Ireland.

“It is beyond belief that ‘liberals’, who say they believe in devolution, quickly abandon their belief in local democracy when it comes to abortion. They gather in the restaurants of Richmond-upon-Thames or the Islington wine bars and plot to impose their political ideology and agenda on the people of Northern Ireland – where 100,000 people are alive today, 5% of the population, precisely because Northern Ireland refused to introduce British abortion laws. This is a matter to be settled in the North by the North and not by Westminster.

Lord Alton said that, “Time and again, those in favour of abortion, embryo experimentation, coercive overseas abortions, and euthanasia have relentlessly campaigned to change laws that since Hippocrates crafted the Hippocratic Oath – with explicit condemnation of abortion and euthanasia – have served society well. There is no such thing as a safe abortion for the baby in the womb”.

Quoting G.K. Chesterton, he said that “when we marry the spirit of the age we become widowers in the next” and added that when we kill the unborn we will be childless in the next.

Lord Alton concluded, “In Britain and now Ireland this is the most dangerous time in history to be an unborn child. For now we weep and stand with Rachel but, as the baton passes to the next generation, we will redouble our efforts until we change hearts, minds, attitudes, culture… and laws”.

Sajid Javid MP (Con; Bromsgrove) is the new Home Secretary, replacing the Windrush scandal-plagued Amber Rudd (Con; Hastings and Rye).

How is the new Home Secretary on issues touching upon the human right to life? The answer is mixed, but relatively positive.

Javid was elected in 2010. During the five years of the Coalition Government, there were two Parliamentary debates and votes relating to abortion:

• The Dorries Amendment  to the Health and Social Care Bill in 2011, which sought to prohibit pre-abortion counselling by abortion providers. Javid voted in favour.
• The Bruce Amendment to the Serious Crime Bill in 2015, which sought to introduce an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion. Javid also voted in favour.

Earlier the same month as his vote in favour of the Bruce Amendment, however, Javid voted in favour of the Coalition Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015, a statutory instrument that authorises the practice of embryo-destructive and exploitative mitochondrial donation techniques. As he was not a member of the Government at that time, this was an exercise of his free vote.

Since then, Javid has abstained on the only two matters before the Commons that had right-to-life relevance: the then Rob Marris MP’s heavily-defeated assisted suicide Bill, and last year’s Ten Minute Rule Bill by Diana Johnson MP (Lab; Hull North) to ‘decriminalise’ abortion (i.e. introduce abortion on demand, for any reason, at least up to 28 weeks, if not birth).

This is a mixed record, but certainly a relative improvement on Rudd, who voted against independent abortion counselling, in favour of mitochondrial donation, and whilst abstaining on all other maters is thought to be more sympathetic to abortion lobby aims, such as the extension of abortion funding to Northern Irish women.

Dear Supporter,

Last weekend saw the All Ireland Rally for Life in Dublin, at which up to 100,000 people marched for life, for mothers and babies and to save the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution!

Especially if you’re Irish or have Irish ancestry (but even if you’re not or don’t!), to signify your solidarity with this campaign, please join London Irish United For Life as they attend the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The plan for this is:
–> Meet at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street (W1K 3AH) at 10:30 for tea/coffee.
–> Walk to the March starting area between Hyde Park Corner and Half Moon Street in Piccadilly (nearest tubes Hyde Park Corner and Green Park).
–> Those coming late, or who miss the 10:30 meeting can come to the London Irish United for Life starting area, which will be in Section E, Number 57, which is predicted to be between Down Street and Old Park Lane. Stewards in pink high-vis jackets will be there to direct people to sections. People should look out for signs saying ‘Section E’. Everyone needs to be in place by 11:15.
–> Posters will be provided. Remember to wear green!

Last year, the abortion lobby received a boost by the London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign forming a section in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2017. This will be an important way to give balance, show support for the fight for the right to life of unborn children, and to bolster the Save The Eighth campaign in Ireland.

Please do share, invite others, and come along!

Today, the Prime Minister appointed Maria Caulfield MP (Lewes) as Conservative Party Vice-Chair with Responsibility for Women. Caulfield is a superb MP, and her excellent appointment was greeted very warmly by many commentators.

Members of the abortion lobby and their allies in politics and in the media attacked the decision online, on the basis that Caulfield had led opposition to their key legislative aim: so-called ‘decriminalisation’.

Falsely presented as merely removing criminal penalties for women who buy abortion pills online, decriminalisation really means taking abortion out of the law. This would mean removing all legal limitations on abortion outside of medical regulation, leading to a situation of abortion on demand, for any reason, and (depending on whether criminal penalties were partly or completely repealed) either up to 28 weeks or up to birth.

As it happens, both the removal of abortion from the law and the extension of abortion above the current limit of 24 weeks are extreme minority positions, especially amongst women.

ComRes found in polling last October that 70% of women believe that abortion should be governed by a legal framework, and in May last year they found that only 1% of women favour increasing the upper limit beyond 24 weeks (and another 1% who favour abortion up to birth). By contrast, the same May Poll found that 70% of women want the upper abortion limit lowered, with 59% favouring it to be lowered to at least 16 weeks.

Moreover, removing abortion from the criminal law would also legalise abortion for any reason whatsoever, including sex-selective abortion. The May poll taken above confirmed that 92% of women supported sex-selective abortion being explicitly illegal in law.

Not only would decriminalising abortion mean abortion on demand, for any reason, either up to 28 weeks or birth – an extreme minority position, contrary to the opinion of the vast majority of women – it would remove important protections for pregnant women. Section 58 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861, and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, both of which criminalise self-abortion, also criminalise men who try to force women to have abortions by causing their miscarriage. Removing either statute would remove important protections.

Meanwhile, women have only been prosecuted in the last few decades in Britain for self-aborting in extreme, callous, and late cases. In R v Catt (2009), a woman called Sarah Catt was prosecuted for aborting her baby at 40 weeks, just before the baby could be born. In R v Towers (2015), a woman was prosecuted for causing her baby to be smothered to death at 32 weeks, when she took prostaglandins that caused her have heavy contractions. There has not been a single prosecution in England and Wales or Scotland before 24 weeks.

In opposing decriminalisation, Maria Caulfield not only represented the views of the majority of British women, but stood for better protections and safety for pregnant mothers and unborn children. Contrary to abortion lobby claims, this makes her an excellent choice for Conservative Vice-Chair, especially with responsibility for women.

RTL Executive Officer Peter D. Williams said:

“Maria Caulfield is a great MP, and an excellent choice to be a Vice-Chair of the Conservative Party. Her views and actions in the House of Commons on abortion represent the view of the moderate majority of women, contrary to the inhumane extremism of BPAS and the rest of the abortion lobby.

The Prime Minister is to be congratulated for this superb appointment, and we hope more appointments in areas such as this involve Parliamentarians who represent the humane instincts of most Britons, especially most British women”.

END

This morning, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee heard from Ealing Councillors, abortion industry representatives, and right-to-life campaigners, on the issue of alleged harassment taking place outside abortion facilities.

The proceedings illustrated that there is currently no probative evidence that has been presented of harassment taking place outside abortion facilities, whether in Ealing, Portsmouth, Birmingham, or elsewhere in the country. All that is presented is hearsay by abortion lobby groups who claim to speak on behalf of women going for abortions.

Last week at Birmingham City Council, a Councillor for Edgbaston in Birmingham, despite being in favour of legalised abortion, also complained about the lack of any evidence of public order disturbance outside the abortion facility in her area.

A series of individuals and groups who have either an ideological support of abortion, or a material interest in stopping pro-life vigils, have alleged women telling them of upsetting experiences outside abortion vigils, but have provided no hard evidence of any such activity going on.

When invited by Clare McCullough of Good Counsel Network to give details that could be checked and thereby proved or falsified, Marie Stopes UK representative John Hansen-Brevitti demurred, needing to be supported by pro-abortion Select Committee Chairperson Yvette Cooper MP, who throughout her own remarks considered reports of subjective upset by anyone to be evidence of harassment. This instead of more objective criteria and substantive proof of the truth of such allegations.

Despite this dearth of evidence, abortion advocates on the Committee and in front of it tried to twist it in their favour. Rather than a lack of prosecution evidencing a lack of prosecutable behaviour, it was taken by them as evidence that the police did not have the powers or confidence to arrest genuinely harassing behaviour. When McCullough pointed out that shouting outside abortion facilities was from aggressive pro-abortion protesters ‘Sister Supporter’, Cooper took this as evidence that no group at all should be allowed outside abortion facilities, rather than just those who cause disturb public order.

By contrast, right-to-lifers McCullough and Antonia Tully pointed to the burden of proof on abortion advocates to substantiate their claims, and also offered alternative testimony from hundreds of women who have been positively affected by Good Counsel Network. Cooper ruled such evidence irrelevant.

The Committee hearing excellently showed the substance-less attempts by the abortion lobby to justify their illiberal aim of using draconian ‘buffer zones’, whether through locally-imposed Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) or national legislation, to chill free speech and the right to free assembly, both of which are guaranteed under Common Law and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). It also showed the dignity and seriousness with which pro-life vigil organiser McCullough answered the falsehoods and misinterpretations put before her.

RTL Executive Officer Peter D. Williams said:

“The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee hearing his morning was very illustrative of the truth of this issue.

On the one hand, it exposed the utter lack of probative evidence that the abortion lobby has to justify its campaign to shut down pro-life vigils through illiberal buffer zones, imposed either locally or nationally. The lengths to which abortion advocates will go to close down their opposition is astonishing in its mendacity.

On the other hand, we saw the real story of what abortion vigils intend, and do. So far from being hostile and angry, they are loving and peaceful. They almost always are about offering help and practical support for women who would often actually like to keep their babies, but feel they have no option to do so. Such vigil keepers do not attack or shame women. Allegations that they try to force women to accept leaflets, or block entrances, or shout at women, are without  meaningful foundation.

More generally, the hearing also showed the need for us to have a serious discussion in this country about the importance of free speech and assembly vs. the purported right of people not to be offended. On university campuses as now outside abortion facilities, some politicians and groups are tying to shut down certain forms of activism, even charitable ones, on the basis that others will perceive them to be upsetting or harassing. That is a ludicrous notion, and could undermine our status as a free and open society.

One excellent way to maintain our liberal and democratic traditions is to oppose buffer zones and any effort like them that uses evidence-bereft and slanderous hearsay to dishonestly justify the closing down of peaceful vigils that simply try to help women who feel abortion is their only ‘choice’”.