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
Pope renews attack on IVF
Posted: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 09:00
Speaking at a conference on infertility in Rome, the Pope has renewed his attack on IVF treatments. He said artificial methods of getting pregnant were 'arrogance', insisting that sex between a husband and wife was the only acceptable way of conceiving.
Matrimony was the "only place worthy of the call to existence of a new human being", he told scientists and fertility experts. "The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn't consist in a "product", but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual," he said.
But experts have dismissed his views as "archaic and out of step." One practitioner at an IVF clinic in Canada said that Catholics take no notice of the Pope and he had treated many infertile Catholic couples.
Catholic midwives lose abortion 'conscientious objection' case
Posted: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:37
Two Catholic midwives have lost a legal battle after claiming that being asked to supervise nurses involved in abortion procedures violated their religious conscience.
The two women said being forced to supervise staff taking part in abortions at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow violated their human rights.
In judgement at the Court of Session in Edinburgh , Lady Smith said their right of conscientious objection was not unqualified and they had agreed to take up the roles of labour ward co-ordinators, although they now took objection to the job content. She added that "They knowingly accepted that these duties were to be part of their job. They can be taken to have known that their professional body, the Royal College of Nursing, takes the view that the right of conscientious objection is limited and extends only to active participation in the termination."
NSS president Terry Sanderson said: "These women knew when they started the job that the conscientious objection that is allowed only extends to direct participation in the abortion and not to supervising other nurses who might be working in that area. The court has made the right decision not to extend the scope of the conscientious objection otherwise where would it end? Would they be able to object to working in a hospital that carries out terminations? Or for a health authority that carries out terminations? They are perfectly entitled to their religious beliefs, but they must understand that not everyone shares them and if they don't want to do the duties that are required of them, they should go into another line of work.
"Abortion is legal in this country and no woman undertakes it lightly. It is stressful enough without the added burden of dealing with disapproving midwives".
This is the latest in a series of attempts by religious believers to put their beliefs above patient care. Like all previous attempts to secure special privileges at work, this one has failed.
