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
Catholic midwives face further legal challenge to “conscience” exemption
Posted: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:35
Two Catholic midwives who, in April, won a legal case at Scotland's supreme civil court for the right to conscientious exemption from all involvement in abortion procedures, now face a further legal challenge.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has confirmed to the National Secular Society that it intends to appeal the ruling which had given Mary Doogan and Connie Wood exemptions from delegating, supervising or supporting any staff involved in abortions.
Their case was backed by the Pro-life group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
Scotland's supreme civil court's verdict had noted that the right to conscientious objection enshrined, in 1967 Abortion Act, "should extend to any involvement in the process of treatment, the object of which is to terminate a pregnancy". It was the first time that legally, conscientious objection was understood to legitimately extend beyond direct participation in terminations.
Following the Supreme Court ruling in April, the Secular Medical Forum and National Secular Society sent a joint letter to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde urging it to consider the wider ramifications of the ruling to NHS provision of abortion services and other healthcare services when considering whether to appeal.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "We very much welcome NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's decision to appeal this judgement. Any extension of conscience objection could have a seriously detrimental impact on costs and service delivery – not only to women seeking abortions, but right across healthcare provision.
"It should be the responsibility of individual healthcare professionals to apply only for roles which do not conflict with their personal beliefs. Where the two clash, the patient must always be the central concern, and should not be in any way disadvantaged by the personal views of individual healthcare professionals."
Antony Lempert, Chair of the Secular Medical Forum also welcomed the news. He said: "Prior to this latest ruling, legislation rightly limited the legal right of healthcare professionals to conscientiously object only to direct participation in the abortion procedure. The appeal court ruling would instead act to remove the constraints on healthcare professionals by allowing a much broader definition of 'participation'. Without challenge, the ruling may compromise the ability of individual hospitals and NHS organisations to guarantee the continued provision of abortion services.
"The right of a healthcare professional to refuse to participate in reasonable, legal medical treatments should not be absolute. Other than direct participation in abortion procedures, conscientious objection requests should instead be limited by the needs of the patient which should always take priority. We hope that this latest appeal will confirm that requests made by NHS staff to conscientiously object to a wide variety of tasks may need to be refused in order to maintain a safe, effective health service for patients."
Abortion reforms in Spain: government accused of return to Franco era
Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 14:28
The Spanish Government is preparing a reform to the country's abortion law that, some have argued, will return Spain to a situation similar to the one that existed under General Franco's dictatorship.
Whilst the government denies that its proposed reform comes in response to pressure from the Catholic Church, its announcement of the reform came just hours after the head of Spain's Catholic Church, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, called for an "urgent reform" of the current law, dating from 2010.
At present in Spain, women can have an abortion up to 14 weeks without having to provide a reason, up to 22 weeks if there is a risk to the mother's health or when two doctors say the foetus has severe abnormalities.
The new bill, which has yet to be presented to congress, will not only do away these time limits, but also, according to an interview given by Spain's justice minister, Alberto Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, to the Spanish newspaper La Razon, it will not include malformations of the foetus as a reason for interrupting a pregnancy. The minister said: "I don't understand why the foetus should be unprotected, allowing it to be aborted, just because it suffers some kind of disability or malformation". He has also said that "risk to physical and mental health cannot be considered as a pretext to not protect the life of a newborn".
The right wing Popular Party has also promised that those under 18 would need the permission of their parents for a termination.
Spain's Socialist opposition party, PSOE, is one of many to have claimed that it is the Catholic Church who is behind the reform; Elena Valenciano, the party's vice president, has stated that PSOE will downgrade its relations with the Vatican if more rules such as this one are introduced. She argued: "We can't accept that bishops continue to impose their moral position on the [Spanish] people".
The vast majority of Spaniards, 81%, are against banning abortion in cases where a foetus is malformed, according to a poll published in July 2012 in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
