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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MPs urge action on Crisis Pregnancy Centres
Posted: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 16:48
MPs are calling on Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt to regulate Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs) following evidence that at least 38 nationwide abortion advice centres have misled vulnerable women, according to The Telegraph.
A recent report by Brook, an organisation that provides free and confidential sexual health advice and contraception to young people, has yet again revealed that CPCs, very often run by religious bodies, are providing misleading information on the mental and physical health outcomes of abortion and using inappropriate language and emotional manipulation when providing advice to women considering an abortion.
Of the five main CPCs, four are either outwardly religious or have religious roots. One, the Good Counsel Network (GCN), is a "Catholic, pro-life group based in London", that provides counselling to pregnant women "founded on prayer and the teachings of the Catholic Church"as well as hosting "abortuary vigils" outside abortion clinics. A counsellor at one of its Centres, the Central London Women's Centre (CLWC), told an under-cover reporter that after abortion there is "an increased statistical likelihood of child abuse" because women had to break "natural barriers that are around the child that you don't cross" in order to terminate a pregnancy. The counsellor also falsely claimed that women who had terminations were 25% less likely to be able to carry a pregnancy to full term.
Another group running CPCs, Image, is a Christian charity that is expressly anti-abortion. It organises a "National Day of Prayer about Abortion", and distributes a prayer guide, encouraging people to "pray that those who advocate arguments which rationalize away the killing of unborn children would come to understand that the sanctity of human life is paramount".
The third group, Foundation for Life, was founded by American pastor, Dr Joel R Beeke, who has compared abortion to the Holocaust.
The fourth group, an organisation responsible for providing the largest number of CPCs in the UK, is the CareConfidential. CareConfidential was founded by the charity Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), whose charitable aims, as listed with the Charity Commission, are: "The advancement and propagation of the Christian Gospel and in particular Christian teachings as it bears on or affects national and individual morality and ethics". CARE has a network of 162 Crisis Pregnancy Counselling Centres across the UK, most of which are attached to evangelical Christian churches.
Amongst some of the claims made by centres run by, or affiliated with, CARE was that there is such a thing as 'Post-Abortion Syndrome', a fabricated medical disorder which is unrecognised by any medical body. Counsellors also shared their religious beliefs, personal experiences or made value-judgements on abortion and adoption, as well as giving out booklets produced by the American anti-abortion organisation, Focus on the Family.
CPCs are supposed to offer counselling on pregnancy choices, and sometimes free testing and other services. Unlike the Government registered Pregnancy Advice Bureaux, CPCs are unregulated. And whilst they are independent of the NHS, a number of CPCs have established links with the NHS (Care Confidential is actually signposted to by the NHS Choices website) and some claim to be receiving referrals from local GPs and hospitals. According to Brook, at least four Care Confidential affiliated CPCs are located in GP practices or hospitals.
Following Brook's latest report, a number of MPs have asked the Government to look into abortion counselling services.
Stephen Dorrell, Conservative MP and chair of the Health Select Committee, told The Telegraph: "most people in this country will regard it as unacceptable for pregnant women to seek advice from somewhere, which says it offers advice, and receive people's prejudiced opinions instead". He has written a letter to Jeremy Hunt urging action.
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, a member of the Health Select Committee, also called for Mr Hunt to review the abortion counselling services: "There has to be transparency about who is funding these organisations and whether they are anti-abortion". She noted: "If a 'clinic' is giving medical advice it should come under the remit of the Care Quality Commission which should then have the powers to close it if it is giving out completely false information".
Luciana Berger MP, Labour's shadow public health minister, commented, "in light of this emerging evidence on women receiving incorrect information, we must look again at the lack of regulation in this area".
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has commented that it "believes that Clinical Commissioning Groups have a duty to ensure that pregnancy counselling services contracted follow national guidelines. It is important to ensure that impartial, non-judgemental advice is provided to women at this difficult time".
The NSS is also writing to Jeremy Hunt, asking that he investigate the regulatory issues surrounding CPCs, to ensure that women are given factual, impartial and value-free advice when using their services.
Religious-right lobby succeeds in sabotaging progressive EP report on women’s reproductive rights
Posted: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:51
After an extensive and well-organised lobbying effort from the religious right, the European Parliament has, on Human Rights day, rejected a progressive Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) authored by Portuguese MEP, Edite Estrela.
The report highlighted the need to increase the fight against gender-based violence and sexually transmitted infections, and advocated the right of women to make their own informed choices on their sexual and reproductive life, including access to contraception and abortion. Whilst non-binding, the report, if adopted would have sent a strong political message from the European Parliament in defence of these rights.
Instead, MEPs voted, by a narrow majority of 334 votes against 327, for a centre-right and far-right Resolution that undermines any further role of the EU within the area of women's rights.
The rejection of the Estrela report comes in the wake of a misleading and cynical campaign conducted by extremist religious groups and conservatives who have misrepresented the contents of the report, and used personal threats towards MEPs.
Sophia Kuby, head of European Dignity Watch, estimated it was likely that the emails MEPs received against the report exceeded 100,000. John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said the "rejection of the Estrela report proves that peaceful and prayerful grassroots lobbying by pro-lifers can have a real positive impact in the political arena".
MEP Mikael Gustafsson, Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, said: "I remain ashamed and stunned that so many people still can't see how important sexual and reproductive health and rights are to achieving gender equality in the EU and beyond.
"We will continue to defend a woman's right to safe and legal abortion and access to contraception. We won't back down on calling for comprehensive, non-discriminatory sexuality education for all as well as for urgent protection of the rights of LGBTI persons in Europe. The Estrela report contained all these objectives and it is a scandal that right-wing forces have succeeded in throwing it out."
This latest development comes in the context of other recent efforts by conservative Christians to undermine the sexual and reproductive rights of women. One of which was the European citizens' initiative "One of us", which in September 2013, reached the required number of signatures (1 million) to be presented to European institutions, giving its sponsors the opportunity of meeting EU representatives. If implemented, it would mean that the EU would not provide any funds to embryonic stem cell research, IVF treatments that involve the destruction of embryos, or abortion providers of any kind.
"One of us", officially supported by Pope Francis, was funded by an Italian pro-life organisation, Fondazione Vita Nova, costing 50,000 euros. It was also backed by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an Evangelical anti-choice NGO based in Strasbourg. The ECLJ is the European wing of the American Centre for Law and Justice, specialising in litigation at the European Court of Human Rights where it attempts to limit recognition of LGBT's and reproductive rights.
