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Government introduces certificate to recognise life lost before 24 weeks

In a recent Government response to a Pregnancy Loss Review, baby loss certificates are being introduced for lives lost before 24 weeks gestation. 

“Recognition of life lost”

Maria Caulfield MP, Women’s Minister, introduced the Government’s response as a means of helping families to deal with the pain of lives “cruelly cut short”. 

An immediate action that the Government is implementing is the introduction of a certificate of baby loss in “recognition of life lost” before 24 weeks. The optional certificate will provide official recognition of the loss of the child in the womb, though the response makes it clear that this is not a legal document. 

Dignified treatment of remains

In the past, tragic stories have been shared of women who have been told to retrieve the remains of their baby from the toilet or to store them in the fridge. The Government has now committed to a review of guidance on the sensitive handling of remains so that women and families are not asked to treat the remains of any babies they have lost as “waste products”. 

Other recommendations include allowing women to receive treatment if they experience recurrent miscarriages, increasing funding for bereavement support related to baby loss, granting bereavement leave for staff who experience baby loss before 24 weeks, and improving information about baby loss in healthcare settings. 

“Gross contradiction” in attitude to baby loss and abortion

Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “The loss of every life causes great sadness, no matter at what point this happens. We welcome the Government’s increased recognition of the value of life in the womb before 24 weeks through the recommendations laid out in this response”. 

“These recommendations however do not go far enough and demonstrate a gross contradiction in the Government’s attitude to babies in the womb. Whilst the lives of babies lost through miscarriage are now rightly being recognised, the hundreds of thousands of babies lost to abortion every year in the UK are not”.

In the UK, babies can be aborted for any reason up to 24 weeks and up to birth in cases of fetal disability. It is no surprise that families are not offered emotional support for baby loss before 24 weeks when, in other circumstances, ending a baby’s life through abortion before 24 weeks is considered by some as a right rather than a tragedy. Babies lost to abortion are too frequently dehumanised rather than valued”.

“The UK abortion law needs to be changed urgently to reflect the humanity of every child in the womb from the moment of conception”.  

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Only hours left of the appeal to stop three major anti-life threats.

Only hours left of the appeal to stop three major anti-life threats.

Dear reader,

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like you across the UK, the McArthur assisted suicide Bill in Scotland was defeated in March by 69 votes to 57.

Then, in April, the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill fell in the House of Lords.

Many commentators thought both Bills would become law.

If that had happened, governments in England, Scotland and Wales would now be preparing to roll out assisted suicide services.

Over the coming decades, this would have led to the deaths of many thousands of vulnerable people.

But that is not what happened.

Because supporters like you acted, those Bills were stopped.

Because of you, many vulnerable lives have been saved.

These were two very significant victories. But sadly, they are not the last battles we face this year.

The new Parliamentary session began on Wednesday. We now face three major threats.

  1. Attempts to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill and bypass the House of Lords

    The assisted suicide lobby, led by Dignity in Dying, a multi-million-pound pressure group, has made it clear that it is going to attempt to bring back the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the next parliamentary session.

    It then plans to use the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords and force the Bill into law.

  2. Labour Government plans for a major expansion of abortion provision, including financial incentives for ‘lunch-hour’ abortions

    Under these plans, the Government would financially incentivise major abortion providers, BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices, to provide ‘lunch-hour’ or ‘same-day’ abortions.

    ‘Lunch-hour’ abortion services are walk-in abortion services designed to fit into a woman’s lunch hour.

    Women facing an unplanned pregnancy need time, care and support, not a system that gives abortion clinics a financial incentive to rush them through consultations, scans and abortions on the same day.

    If these plans go ahead, many more lives are likely to be ended by abortion here in the UK.

  3. Extreme abortion up to birth proposals in Scotland

    In Scotland, plans are moving forward to introduce an extreme abortion up to birth law. This would go far beyond the abortion law change recently backed by the Lords for England and Wales.

    A review of abortion law in Scotland, commissioned by Humza Yousaf when he was Scottish First Minister, recommended that the Scottish Government scrap the current 24-week time limit – and abortion be available on social grounds, including for sex-selective purposes, right up to birth.

    The final plans are expected to be brought forward as a Government Bill in the new Scottish Parliament, which began on Thursday.

If these three major threats succeed, thousands of vulnerable lives will be lost.

We cannot allow this to happen.

We can only defeat these three major threats with your help.

We ran our biggest campaigns ever to help defeat the assisted suicide Bills at Westminster and in Scotland.

That work has made a serious dent in our limited resources.

To cover this gap and ensure we can effectively defeat these three major threats in the coming months, we are aiming to raise at least £199,250 by midnight this Sunday (17 May 2026).

We are, therefore, appealing to you to please give as generously as you can.

Every donation, large or small, will make a crucial difference in saving the lives of the unborn and many others. Plus, if you are a UK taxpayer, £1 becomes £1.25 with Gift Aid at no extra cost to you.

By stopping these threats, YOU can save lives during this new Parliamentary session.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these three major threats?

EMERGENCY
APPEAL
to SAVE
lives

Only hours left of the appeal to stop three major anti-life threats.

Only hours left of the appeal to stop three major anti-life threats.