In the biggest response to a Right To Life UK election campaign ever, 200 candidates from around the country have signed the Both Lives Pledge since it was launched last Monday.
In the build up to the General Election next month, Right To Life UK launched the Vote For Both Lives campaign, a large-scale initiative encouraging candidates to sign the pro-life Both Lives Pledge.
The Both Lives Pledge outlines three policy changes that are designed to increase protection for babies in the womb and end pregnancy discrimination for women – policies that will save lives by protecting and supporting both mother and child.
The 200 candidates who have signed the Both Lives Pledge have committed to stopping discrimination against baby girls by supporting a law change to clarify that sex-selective abortion is illegal; bringing UK law closer to the laws in the majority of EU countries by voting to lower the gestational time limit for abortion and supporting women in the workplace by backing policies designed to stop pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
Independent polling by ComRes shows that all three policy changes are strongly supported by the public.
89% of the general population and 91% of women agree that gender-selective abortion should be explicitly banned by the law. 70% of women in the UK want to see the time limit for abortion reduced to 20 weeks or below. 79% of the general population and 84% of women agree that women who want to continue with their pregnancies, but are under financial pressure to have an abortion, should be given more support.
Ending pregnancy and maternity discrimination would help provide many women across the country with the financial support they need to care for their children and themselves.
An analysis by the Right To Life UK Public Affairs team of the voting records of the 132 MPs that have decided not to stand again for election shows that 92 (70%) had a predominantly pro-abortion voting record during their time in parliament. Only 23 (17%) of those MPs standing down have a predominantly pro-life voting record.
After failing to make extreme changes to abortion legislation during the last Parliament, the abortion lobby has made it clear that they will be back to attempt to introduce extreme abortion legislation during the next Parliament.
In the run-up to the election, constituents are being encouraged to visit www.righttolife.org.uk/bothlives where it takes 30 seconds to ask their MP candidates to sign the Both Lives Pledge.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “This is the biggest response we have seen to any election campaign we have run ever. Since we launched the Vote For Both Lives campaign on Monday, tens of thousands of emails have been sent from constituents throughout the country asking their candidates to sign the Both Lives Pledge”.
“200 MP candidates have now signed the Both Lives Pledge making it clear that if elected they will be supporting important measures to increase protection for babies in the womb and end pregnancy discrimination for women. These are policies that will save lives by protecting and supporting both mother and child”.
“In the next Parliament, the abortion lobby will likely be back in full force, pushing to introduce new extreme abortion legislation”.
“It is fantastic to see such a strong response from the community and MP candidates as the UK faces what is one of the most important elections for life issues in decades”.
