We've defended reproductive rights from religiously motivated restrictions since our founding.
Religion should not stand in the way of reproductive healthcare.
A desire to restrict reproductive rights, and to control women's bodies, is a hallmark of religious fundamentalism. We strongly support the right of women to have legal and safe abortions and access to emergency contraception.
Since its founding the National Secular Society has supported reproductive rights. In 1878 our founder and vice-president were prosecuted for making information about birth control accessible to working class women.
Throughout the world, reproductive rights are still under threat from theocrats. While individual religious people hold diverse views on abortion, every stage of progress in reproductive healthcare has been fought by religious organisations. Often these have involved virulent campaigns of intimidation and misinformation.
84% of people in the UK believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This includes 76% of religious people and 94% of nonreligious people.
In the UK, emergency contraception can still sometimes be difficult to obtain. Some religious pharmacists have defied General Pharmaceutical Council guidance by refusing to sell it or even to dispense a prescription given to a woman after a consultation with her own doctor.
People of all religions and beliefs can have disagreements on the boundaries of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. However, religious beliefs should not be used to restrict the bodily autonomy of other people.
Take action!
1. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
2. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
NSS welcomes decision to implement buffer zone around abortion clinic
Posted: Tue, 10 Apr 2018 14:50
The National Secular Society has welcomed the creation of a buffer zone around a west London abortion clinic.
Ealing Council voted to implement a public spaces protection order (PSPO) affecting the area around a Marie Stopes clinic on Tuesday evening. Those who breach the PSPO would be liable to fines or prosecution.
Councillors have recently held a consultation on how to prevent "intimidation, harassment and distress" for women accessing the clinic, following a petition set up by local campaigners.
Supporting the motion, council leader Julian Bell said the proximity of 'pro-life' protests to the clinic has had a "clear detrimental effect" on women using the services, those supporting them and clinic staff. He said the "vast majority" of Ealing residents supported the implementation of a 'safe zone'.
Ealing is the first council in the country to confirm the adoption of buffer zones around the clinics. But in recent months several others have indicated a willingness to do so, including in Birmingham, Manchester and Portsmouth.
And in November the home secretary, Amber Rudd, ordered a review of intimidation and harassment of patients outside abortion clinics. The review could result in a nationwide crackdown on anti-abortion protesters' activity.
One hundred and thirteen MPs signed a letter to Rudd calling for buffer zones. They included the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, the Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas and the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford. Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq organised the letter.
The clinic in Ealing provides around 7,000 medical and surgical abortions a year. John Hansen-Brevetti, its clinical operations manager, told the Ealing Times anti-abortion protesters had been harassing women over three decades. He said "pavement counsellors" were outside the clinic every day and approached every patient on the way in and out.
"People come into our consultation rooms crying and shaking, sometimes we have to wait to take their blood pressure because they're so anxious having been through that."
Anna Veglio-White, a co-founder of the group Sister Supporter, said she had seen protesters misdirect women to make them miss their appointments and follow them to their cars to force leaflets through their windows.
The local press also reported that entries in the clinic's log book showed evidence of "aggressive" protesters upsetting patients. In at least one incident the police were called. In another protesters showed a woman a plastic foetus. Another woman was asked: "Are you sure you want to kill your baby?"
And another woman wrote: "I felt very traumatised seeing photos of babies' embryos outside of this clinic. The lady outside will not remove the photos and would not listen to my complaint. If there is any way you can remove these people/group from standing outside please make it happen. This is unacceptable and wrong."
Anti-abortion protesters in the UK are often affiliated to religious groups such as 40 Days for Life, a Christian-based global campaign body. The group says its mission is to "show local communities the consequences of abortion in their own neighbourhoods, for their own friends and families". Protesters' tactics have included holding vigils, praying in public, singing hymns and chanting.
In 2015 the British Pregnancy Advisory Service said an abortion clinic in an unnamed area would close "as a direct result of protest activity".
Stephen Evans, the NSS's chief executive, welcomed Ealing's decision to rubber-stamp the plan and called for similar action across the country.
"Anti-abortion groups are within their rights to protest but that cannot include harassing and intimidating women as they are simply trying to access healthcare. These tactics prey on patients at a moment when they should reasonably be able to expect confidentiality and evidence-led advice from trained professionals.
"Introducing a buffer zone is a sensible move in these circumstances", he said.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has said it will support any legal challenge to the PSPO in Ealing.
Image: Pro-choice demonstrators, from Flickr, by internets_dairy [CC BY 2.0]
UN: UK should legalise abortion and ensure NI women can access it
Posted: Mon, 26 Feb 2018 17:27
The National Secular Society has welcomed UN recommendations that the UK Government should decriminalise abortion and ensure women in Northern Ireland can legally terminate their pregnancies.
On Friday a UN committee accused the UK of violating women's human rights by restricting abortions in Northern Ireland and said it should repeal the 19th-century law which criminalises abortion.
In a report, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) said Northern Ireland's law caused "great harm and suffering" to thousands of women and girls, who either have to travel outside Northern Ireland or carry their pregnancies to term against their will.
Abortions are only allowed in Northern Ireland if a woman's life is at risk or there is a serious risk to her mental health. Women whose pregnancies have resulted from rape or incest cannot have legal abortions; nor can those whose babies have fatal foetal abnormalities.
"The situation in Northern Ireland constitutes violence against women that may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," said CEDAW vice-chair Ruth Halperin-Kaddari. Ms Halperin-Kaddari visited Northern Ireland in 2016 to conduct a confidential inquiry into allegations by civil society organisations that women faced grave and systematic rights violations.
The report recommended that the criminalisation of abortion contained in the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act should be repealed. It said terminations should be allowed in Northern Ireland in cases when there is a fatal foetal abnormality, a sexual crime has taken place or there is a non-permanent threat to a woman's health.
It said women were "torn between complying with discriminatory laws that unduly restrict abortion or risk[ing] prosecution and imprisonment". The chief commissioner of the UN Human Rights Commission, Les Allamby, called it "timely".
Abortion is partially decriminalised in England, Wales and Scotland, although women can commonly access abortions in those three countries until the 24th week of their pregnancies. Many Northern Irish women currently travel to the rest of the UK to have abortions.
Hardline religious groups have commonly defended Northern Ireland's draconian abortion laws. In August Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland's first minister and the leader of the DUP, promised to resist efforts to liberalise them. When questioned on this issue and same-sex marriage, Ms Foster has said "the DUP is – and we make no apology for this – founded on very strong Christian values".
In response to the latest report, the chief executive of the advocacy group Christian Action Research and Education told Sky News the current laws provided "support for the unborn child" which should not be changed.
The NSS has campaigned against religious restrictions on reproductive rights since the 19th century. In response to the latest news its chief executive, Stephen Evans, called the current situation for Northern Irish women "an unacceptable result of deference to religious sensitivities".
"The Government must not allow religious groups to dictate what women may or may not do with their bodies. Policy on abortion should be made based on respect for human rights and scientific evidence."
In June the UK Government announced that it would make abortion services freely available to women from Northern Ireland on the NHS in England. The leaders of the Welsh and Scottish governments followed this by making similar offers of their own.
CEDAW's report comes amid a lengthy impasse in power-sharing talks in Northern Ireland. Several commentators have suggested the Westminster Parliament may be about to impose direct rule. This would give MPs the ability to overturn Northern Ireland's ban on abortion. It would also allow them to pass other measures which have faced opposition from the religious lobby, such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the province.
Last year the NSS told the UN's Human Rights Council that Northern Ireland's restrictions on abortion are out of touch with international human rights norms and called on it to renew its 2012 recommendations on the topic. The NSS said decisions on upholding human rights should not be devolved.
The UK's Supreme Court is currently considering whether abortion laws in Northern Ireland are incompatible with international human rights requirements.
In 2015 Belfast's Court of Appeal ruled that the Northern Ireland Assembly should decide on the country's abortion law, rather than the courts in the country. A year later the Assembly voted against legalising abortion in cases of foetal abnormality and sexual crime.
Image: © Nick Youngson / Alpha Stock Images [CC BY-SA 3.0]. Original image available here.
