We must not underestimate the news that the government has appointed anti-abortion group Life to their advisory group on sexual health, writes shadow health minister Diane Abbott.
Diane Abbott MP (Labour, Hackney North and Stoke Newington) is the shadow health minister
We must not underestimate the chilling news that the government has appointed anti-abortion group Life to their expert advisory group on sexual health. This appointment, coupled with the retraction of an invite to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), one of the UK’s leading abortion providers, signals a dangerous move.
Has Anne Milton, the public health minister, bowed to pressure from the activists at Life or are we seeing the government moving away from the pro-choice agenda long favoured by our society?
This news has broken in the same week that Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, pledged his support for the newly-formed ‘Sex and Relationships Education Council’ whose founding members include a deadly medley of abstinence promoters and anti-abortionists including Life, Silver Ring Thing, and the Family Education Trust.
Back at the Department of Health, the members of its sexual health forum have until now included some of the UK’s best sexual health professionals, experts in their field, who have a track record of delivering and commissioning the highest levels of care.
They have built their work on evidence and provided a pro-choice agenda, giving individuals and couples the information and services to make an informed choice about their bodies, their sexual health, contraception and pregnancy.
The members of the sexual health forum have not sought to promote one agenda but to work with ministers to promote good sexual health through choice, prioritising the key issues and responding to society’s complex lives.
The same cannot be said of Life. This is the group that not only opposes abortion under any circumstances, but also opposes contraception. That stance alone speaks volumes.
Any medical professional who is serious about reducing rates of unwanted pregnancy and subsequent abortion knows that controlling fertility depends on modern methods of contraception – and that is a basic human right.
What’s more, Life’s response to birth control is encompassed in a single word. Abstinence. And we all know how unsuccessful those programmes have been in the USA, resulting in higher rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections than in groups using normal, modern, 21st-century methods of family planning.
Life has perpetrated many scare stories and has even questioned the value of condoms, stating they do not protect against sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Even if pressed, Life would not support condom use.
Anti-abortionists, including members of Life, can be seen on a daily basis outside the UK’s abortion clinics, shouting abuse at women going inside and displaying grotesque posters of mutilated foetuses of an advanced gestation. They have no qualms about totally distorting the reality of abortions, 91 per cent of which were carried out at less than 13 weeks’ gestation last year
We will monitor and oppose any attempts by the government to erode or undermine this country’s sexual health professionalism and expertise and I have called for Life’s appointment to the sexual health forum to be retracted.
35 Responses to “Government leaning dangerously towards anti-abortion groups”
Lynda B
I finfd Iam very torn on the issue. On the one hand I believe women should be able to decide what they want do with their bodies -on the other hand, I firmly believe that if there must be abortion, then for goodness sake, reduce the period in which an abortion can take place. Children are being aborted at far too late a stage, and this is inhumane.
One thing I would add, women deciding what to do with their bodies, should include doing everything we can to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
Margaret S
I find your choice of vocabulary most disturbing. ‘Dangerously leaning’, ‘deadly medley’? Are these the words of someone without an agenda? I think not. A range of views should be represented! You talk of a pro-choice majority but yet it is would seem that the ‘leaning’ is most definitely towards pro-abortion not pro-choice. As a teacher I am very worried about the world that children I teach will enter. Everything seems geared to making them sexual at a much younger age with the fall back on abortion if things go wrong. Perhaps we want to move towards a society where promiscuity at a younger age is not acceptable and perhaps a wider range views on a sexual health forum might make a welcome change from having a focus on top class medical services for those who seek an abortion. I am pro-choice but feel increasingly uncomfortable with our wholesale acceptance of abortion. Something has to change, somehow. Let’s try to look at things differently for the sake of our children… ALL our children. Please.
Shelle Fenton
Kids are becoming sexual when they are ready. Same as they always have, and always will. I was sexual at 14, as were my children. Basically when the hormones that permit it kick in.
Imagine a world, where contraception is banned for a minute. Like it used to be. Did that stop sex? no, just more unplanned pregnancies.
I fear that anti abortion lobbyists, maybe getting in the back door.
Im for contraception to ANYONE at ANY age to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Im not arrogant enough to presume i get to have a say in other peoples sex lives. Just mine. And i want choice.
Then, im also pro choice, regarding terminations.
Daniel Weichman
Government leaning dangerously towards anti-abortion groups | @HackneyAbbott http://t.co/rQNlIm5 ht @TheRightArticle #prochoice #feminism
Shelly Asquith
Government leaning dangerously towards anti-abortion groups: http://bit.ly/lOHLEb by shadow health minister @HackneyAbbott