US anti-abortion group lobbying Westminster

One does wonder why they'd bother. I suppose its for PR purposes. Plenty of other countries they could be interfering with far more easily, where courts and govs are more.open to bribery etc.

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/47568-where-does-the-british-public-stand-on-abortion-in-2023

They can bang on as much as they like but the public isn’t with them thankfully. I do think vigilance is required but the fundamental idea of abortion has a significant level of support.

Also our position is hard won. It was a slog, and a winning of public hearts and minds. It is a continued position that it's a free vote. There's no way I'd want that given up and no way I'd support the whipping of MPs on any position on abortion. That way madness lies.

*I entirely agree

AI entirely agree about the value of the compromise position we already have. It's a fudge but it has worked. But putting pressure on BPAS to release names isn't respecting that compromise and it is turning the debate into one about competing rights. A push for abortion on demand right up to birth would have the same effect.

Absolutely agree. Reading so many of the sad stories of miscarried babies needing recognition of "personhood" and understanding the emotional need for this, but at the same time recognising that it does raise issues as to whether aborted babies then have the same rights. I sincerely apologise to those who have gone through this, but it is a concern if this right is used to limit access to terminations.

Andrew Doyle regularly platforms (and agrees with) Lois McLatchie, the senior legal communications officer of ADF UK on Free Speech Nation reguarding reduction of the legal gestation period allowed for abortion in the UK. She's been on other GB News shows too (as have other anti-abortion campaigners), this is something they are ready to get behind in a big way.

As soon as we demand abortion as a right, that medical focus is ignored. The idea that a women has a right to simply change her mind at any time becomes the talking point

This was my concern about the demand for continuing with the covid measures. My first worry with those was women being coerced into decisions at home.

In my view it is foolhardy to pretend that advances in care for premature babies isn't something that needs to be examined with thought and attention as well. It does sometimes feel like this is put on the back burner. And at the same time, there's a demand for recognising miscarriages. You can't hold of it these together and not face the fact it will create questions that need answers.

Not always literally, I know. It's like men's rights in general, though - lots of willing female help. Ultimately the US anti-abortion movement is about men controlling and punishing women. So l could have put it differently but I stand by what I said.

This is my belief, too.

We have a really good compromise in the country by seeing abortion as a medical issue, not a rights issue. No one wants to see a womens health compromised, or children born in pain.

As soon as we demand abortion as a right, that medical focus is ignored. The idea that a women has a right to simply change her mind at any time becomes the talking point, not the fact that late abortions are for medical reasons. Its women who desperately want to keep their child, but cannot who have late terminations.

We just have to ignore these people, and don't fall into the trap of changing what works for us.

Any donations will have to be recorded. They won't be able to hide this in the Dentons way.

The reason trans lobbyists were so successful was because they followed a well worn path trodden by powerful men before them.

It makes a mockery of democracy.

I can't feel complacent about our abortion rights. The left-wing misogynists have worked hard to weaken and divide the class of woman. When right-wing misogynists try and take away a right so fundamentally linked to biology, I worry that the resistance will be too splintered and somehow co-opted by males.

There are many MPs in favour of reducing access to abortion even without American money.

Is it just the one MP they've managed to connect with these people? Or did I miss more detail in the article? Seems all round odd if they've spent a lot of money but only accessed one MP. Or good. As it would indicate our MPs aren't up for American money to import their politics - apart from the one named obviously.

I'm against the uncritical importation of US politics. We've had enough of it in recent years at a societal level (at least). GLAAD has had the most success of course, funding a number of Labour MPs to front the transing of gay children.

There very much is a religious right in the U.K. There are several examples in the Conservative Party alone. This is a serious issue.
Don't underestimate how extreme some evangelical U.K. Christians are on this matter. A former colleague (debating this issue) implied I was going to hell for my D and C for a missed miscarriage.
In parliament there are examples of extreme evangelicals and bizarrely fundamental Catholics (Rees-Mogg and Dorries) express views I've never come across in decades of Catholic Church attendance.
The Times had editorials supporting the over turning of Roe V Wade. There is a real risk to the rights of women here, and I'd like to think this is something we can agree on.

im deeply cynical about this. LOJ is well known for scolding GC activists with “just you wait, if you don’t agree TWAW you’ll lose your abortion rights - and it will service you right!” And then funnily enough just as there have been cumulative weeks of push backs for TRA, the guardian publishes this

the Tories will be out at the next election, there is no religious right in the UK, it’s entirely different in America - this is just the guardian doing its thing. I’ve no doubt this American pressure group is here but in practical terms, there’s no evidence that it has a hope in hell of having any Influence at all.

It is not just at the behest of men. Women in parliament are strongly behind this campaign. Miriam Cates for example is in favour of reducing access to abortion. And Nadine Dorries tabled an amendment or similar years ago. There is a large. Group of 'pro-life' Tories. Which considering how little they care for those lives once here is ironic

And of course the police apparently have all the resources in the world available to persecute women at the behest of men.

How depressing. The effective decriminalisation of rape and the push for the removal of the availability of abortion - Britain in 2024.

Ugh. The right wing arm of the pincer movement in the war on women's rights.
The decriminalisation of abortion is essential if the current situation makes women vulnerable to persecution by ideologues.

However, the right to an abortion can never be enshrined in law in this country because any government can change the law. It's one downside of the doctrine of the supremacy of Parliament. We could never have what French women have. What needs to be had and settled (again) is the debate, so that it is unthinkable, political suicide for a political party to try to restrict availability further than it is now.

I have noticed an uptick in Conservatives talking about abortion
https://www.liamfox.co.uk/news/sir-liam-fox-mp-calls-change-outdated-and-discriminative-abortion-law

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/28/sacrifice-criminal-justice-bill-to-protect-unborn-children/

I really dislike the way American Evangelical money appears to be being used to influence UK politics at the moment. I don't think it should be acceptable for overseas organisations to lobby in this way.

Even for those of us who are vehemently pro-life, we should still be concerned about the direction of travel we're seeing here. Pregnancies end on their own, and carelessly drafted laws and a climate of distrust will end up affecting women who miscarried. Miscarried wanted pregnancies, no less.

There are plenty of terrifying accounts of women being prosecuted for illegal terminations in the US and in South American countries, for what those women say were miscarriages. Even if it were guaranteed to never proceed as far as prosecution, do we want a world where women have to endure an invasive, combative police interview to convince an officer that it was a miscarriage while physically recovering from the experience?

It's certainly something that I'd have absolutely hated to go through myself, and I don't trust the police to get it right. I don't think women should be criminalised for ending pregnancies without medical oversight, and I don't believe it would stop at those women.

I'm certainly not in favour of sending vulnerable women to prison. That's madness. But I do think it would be better to properly fund NHS services so no-one feels the need to use medication to terminate a much later pregnancy. As someone who has had a still birth, I think it's fairly horrifying and don't think we should legalise it. We should make sure no woman ever has to resort to essentially a modern day back street abortion.

Terminology aside, I don't think any significant change in the law is a good idea.