LIFE under threat

Recently the Guardian carried a nasty piece attacking pro-life charities. The article uncritically accepts the account of a survey undertaken by Education for Choice. A pro-abortion group investigating pro-life groups: no room for bias there, eh? Archbishop Cranmer has written a robust response to the article which I commend to you: Guardian smears ‘pro-life’ charities.

LIFE was singled out for attention: the charity has become a target because it has been invited to join the new sexual health forum which advises the Government. There is also currently a push to prevent any pro-life groups from carrying out counselling; see for example the Brook and FPA joint briefing: Abortion information - the right to choose which states:
Organisations opposed to abortion should not be able to provide pregnancy advice services

  • We believe that organisations who are ideologically opposed to abortion must not be able to provide pregnancy advisory services, as by their very nature an ideology against abortion would mean it was not able to offer non-directive and accurate information, about all the choices available to women when they are faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
I know that many Catholics have expressed concerns about the “non-directive” nature of LIFE’s counselling and I agree with them. However, we need to be clear about the danger of this attack on LIFE by the agents of the culture of death. The FPA/Brook proposal is a blanket call for pro-life organisations to be prevented from giving counselling because they are pro-life. We can also expect calls for pro-life groups to be prevented from speaking in schools.

We’ll need to take a closer look at the portrayal of religion by Education for Choice. In the meantime, have a browse through their website. See, for example, the “choice” that is offered in the Get help now section.

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