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.
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Latest updates
NSS welcomes Conway Hall launch of 'Victorian Blogging' project
Posted: Wed, 6 Sep 2017 15:04
The National Secular Society has welcomed a new project from Conway Hall which will highlight the work of Victorian radicals on major issues of the 19th century, including secularism.
Conway Hall has received £88,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for Victorian Blogging – The Pamphleteers Who Dared to Dream of a Better World. This will digitise and open online access to over 1,300 19th century pamphlets, many extremely rare. Victorian radicals used this cheap and rapidly disseminated medium to express their ideas on contemporary issues such as freethought, secularism, gender and political suffrage and what we now know as humanism.
The NSS played a crucial role in advancing these causes during the 19th century, often in the face of vicious opposition. NSS founder Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant started their own Freethought Publishing Company in 1877 and published the pamphlet The Fruits of Philosophy by Charles Knowlton which explained birth control – resulting in their prosecution.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the NSS made repeated attempts to abolish blasphemy laws and legalise bequests to secular organisations. Both of these goals were finally achieved, although blasphemy laws were still in effect in Britain until as late as 2008.
The Victorian Blogging project will explore parallels between 19th century pamphleteering and 21st century blogging. It will encourage people to re-engage with the issues it raises, many of which the NSS continues to champion.
The timing of the project is significant. In 2018 there will be important anniversaries of key milestones in the extension of the franchise, human rights and freedom of thought: the Representation of the People Act 1918, which opened voting in national elections to all men and some women; the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, urging respect for human, civil, economic and social rights, including freedom of expression and belief; and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which finally saw success for the campaign to de-criminalise blasphemy in the UK.
Bob Forder, NSS historian, has welcomed the news and said, "I hope this project will allow the central role of the National Secular Society in promoting and campaigning for progressive causes during the last quarter of the nineteenth century to be better and more widely understood.
"Leaders like Charles Bradlaugh, Annie Besant and G.W. Foote campaigned and pamphleted on issues such as political and parliamentary reform, birth control, republicanism and on behalf of the poor, as well as opposing religious privilege. These heroes and heroines must not be forgotten, nor should the centuries old tradition of radical freethinking dissent which they embodied during their era."
Stephen Evans, NSS Campaigns Director, said: "The NSS is currently celebrating its sesquicentennial. In marking our 150 anniversary it has become clear to us that the history of the Society, and the freethought/secularist movement in general, is poorly understood. Important events and personalities are being forgotten.
"At the same time, we have discovered a genuine interest amongst our members and wider society in this important part of our history. This can be demonstrated by the Parliamentary Art Committee's recent decision to install a portrait bust of our founder – the radical pamphleteer turned Member of Parliament Charles Bradlaugh, in the Palace of Westminster.
"We owe it to those who came before us to celebrate their achievements and preserve their memory. It is for this reason we are particularly enthused by Conway Hall's innovative project."
See also: Our story
DUP vows to resist calls to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage
Posted: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 13:59
DUP leader Arlene Foster has said her party will retain Northern Ireland's restrictions on abortion and same-sex marriage, despite growing pressure for reform.
This week Foster said her party believes that "marriage is between a man and a woman" and "it remains my position very firmly". She was speaking at an event organised by the Methodist Church in Ireland.
She also met Precious Life, which describes itself as "the largest pro-life group in Northern Ireland". Afterwards the organisation said she had assured them her party will do "everything in its power" to maintain Northern Ireland's limits on abortion.
Abortion has been illegal in Northern Ireland since the Victorian era. It has been decriminalised in the rest of the UK since the 1960s.
"Ms Foster was unequivocal in her pro-life conviction and assured us that the DUP will use their power to keep abortion, and the 1967 Abortion Act, out of pro-life Northern Ireland," a spokeswoman for Precious Life told The Times.
The group also said Foster had congratulated it on its youth campaign group, which has travelled around Northern Ireland this summer.
Her party is increasingly facing calls to allow women to have abortions. In June the UK government announced that Northern Irish women would be allowed access to NHS abortion services in England. Around a thousand women make the trip each year.
The number of legal abortions in the province was recently measured at just 15. In 2015 the Belfast High Court ruled that the law was in breach of international human rights standards as it did not permit terminations in cases of rape, incest or serious foetal abnormalities.
The DUP's position is a crucial factor in the passage of legislation. Last year an Ipsos-Mori poll found that 70% of the Northern Irish electorate was in favour of legalising same-sex marriage. And in 2015 the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly voted by a thin majority to legalise it. But the motion was blocked through the use of a "petition of concern", a measure introduced under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The petition was designed to protect the rights of minority groups.
Foster has made clear that religion is a crucial reason for her party's stance. Last year she said "the DUP is – and we make no apology for this – founded on very strong Christian values." She was responding to a question about the relevance of issues such as marriage and abortion to her party's identity.
And religious groups have resisted calls to liberalise the law. The Northern Ireland Evangelical Alliance is among those to oppose same-sex marriage. In 2015 a coalition of groups offered "strong support" to legislation which would have introduced a ten year prison sentence for carrying out an abortion.
That year the Catholic Council for Social Affairs was also recognised as an "interested party" in a case seeking to overturn a High Court ruling that Northern Ireland's restrictions on abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality breeched Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The National Secular Society has consistently campaigned against Northern Ireland's restrictions on abortion and in favour of extending marriage to same-sex couples. In evidence submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council for their 2017 review of the UK, the NSS called Northern Ireland's restrictions on abortion out of touch with international human rights norms, and called on the Council to renew their 2012 recommendations on the topic. While healthcare is a devolved issue, the NSS argued, human rights are not.
In 2016 the Human Rights Council's review of the Republic of Ireland – in which 15 countries issued recommendations on Ireland's abortion laws – led to increased pressure on the country to repeal their constitutional amendment banning abortion. A referendum is expected in spring 2018.
A spokesperson for the NSS said: "This time next year, access to abortion and same-sex marriage will be available across the British Isles. Unfortunately Northern Ireland is likely to remain the exception.
"Arlene Foster's remarks are disappointing. The DUP continues to commit to restricting the choices of women and LGBT+ people, defying the changing views of many of the people she leads. This is further evidence that religious groups have excessive influence on public policy in Northern Ireland."
Picture credit: © Northern Ireland Office
