UK anti-abortion charity with links to MPs ran misleading Facebook ads

Right to Life UK boosted its spend on the social media platform tenfold in three years

Sian Norris and Manasa Narayanan
Sat 16 Dec 2023

A leading UK anti-abortion charity with ties to MPs and peers has increased its Facebook advertising spend more than tenfold in three years, spending nearly £190,000 on advertising campaigns.

In a joint investigation, the Observer and the Citizens analysed the spend and content of hundreds of Facebook ads paid for by Right to Life UK between June 2020 and November 2023. The findings reveal the charity – which provides the secretariat for the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group – spent an average of £117,000 in 2023, an increase from an average £11,400 in 2020, £16,900 in 2021 and £43,600 in 2022.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/anti-abortion-charity-misleading-facebook-ads-mps-right-to-life-uk

MPs Could Vote On Decriminalising Abortion In England And Wales

Zoe Crowther
27 November 2023

MPs will get the chance to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales, with a Labour MP expected to table an amendment this week.

Backbench Labour MP Stella Creasy will put forward an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill on Tuesday that will give MPs an opportunity to vote on decriminalising abortion, PoliticsHome understands.

Continued: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/mps-vote-decriminalising-abortion-england-wales-stella-creasy

27.11.2023

News

1967 Abortion Act

abortion law reform

Commission for the Elimination of Violence against Women

UK – ‘Deeply sinister’: Police testing women who have miscarriages for abortion drugs

Maya Oppenheim, Women’s Correspondent
Nov 2, 2023

Police are testing “distressed” women who have suffered miscarriages for abortion drugs, healthcare providers have warned. Medical professionals argue it is “deeply sinister” to test women who have endured a miscarriage who are suspected of illegal abortions for the drugs – arguing it adds to the guilt and stigma women routinely experience after pregnancy loss.

In one document, seen by The Independent, a bodily fluid sample was sent to a forensics lab to be analysed for a range of drugs – including the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Another reveals a woman who agreed to allow police to have access to samples of her bodily fluids taken by NHS staff.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-testing-abortion-drugs-miscarriage-b2439733.html

Why UK campaigners fear drive to decriminalise abortion may stall

Carla Foster’s release welcomed but case has done little to settle debate about abortions carried after 24-week limit

Alexandra Topping
Tue 18 Jul 2023

On Tuesday, Carla Foster, who was jailed for terminating her pregnancy after the legal time limit last month, was told by the court of appeal that she would be released from prison after her 28-month sentence was halved and suspended.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) says there are three more women accused of illegally ending their own pregnancies awaiting trial, adding that in the last three years there has been an increase in the number of women and girls facing police investigations and threatened with up to life imprisonment.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/18/why-uk-campaigners-fear-drive-to-decriminalisation-abortion-may-stalln

UK – The fight to repeal one of the most outdated abortion laws in the world

By Sana Noor Haq and Niamh Kennedy, CNN

Fri June 23, 2023

Hundreds of protesters lined the street outside the UK’s High Court on Saturday holding picket signs that read “Our bodies, Our right to decide,” before marching through the streets of central London demanding reformed abortion laws for women in England and Wales.

Earlier this month, a British woman who used medication to terminate a pregnancy after the UK’s legally allowed limit was sentenced to 28 months in prison under Victorian-era legislation, in a case that has sparked calls for an overhaul of reproductive justice laws in the country. The woman, who has three children, will serve 14 months in custody and the remainder on license after her release.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/uk/abortion-decriminalization-reproductive-justice-protests-intl-gbr/index.html

UK – Thousands march to decriminalise abortion after woman jailed for ending pregnancy after legal limit

Campaigners stress ‘abortion is healthcare, not a crime - we should not be policing people’s bodies’

Tara Cobham
June 17, 2023

Thousands of protesters calling for the decriminalisation of abortion have marched in central London following outrage at the conviction of a woman for ending her pregnancy beyond the legal cut-off of 24 weeks.

Campaigners stressed that “abortion is healthcare, not a crime”, after Carla Foster, 44, was this week sentenced to 28 months in jail, having obtained drugs to end her pregnancy at 32 to 34 weeks during lockdown.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/abortion-rights-march-london-woman-jailed-b2359503.html

17.06.2023

News

1967 Abortion Act

Abortion Rights Campaign

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Carla Foster

jailing women for abortion

Kerry Abel

pro-choice protests

Women’s Equality party

Woman jailed over abortion – an expert on what UK law actually says and what needs to change

June 14, 2023
Claire Pierson, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Liverpool

Many people assume that because abortion is relatively accessible in England, it is not a crime. The fact that a woman has now received a 28-month prison sentence for taking abortion pills past the legal time limit shows that this assumption is wrong.

Abortion remains within the criminal law to some extent in almost every country globally, despite the fact that it is a safe and relatively common procedure. Laws can criminalise women and pregnant people, healthcare providers or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion. The sentencing in Poland of activist Justyna Wydrzyńska is one example. In March 2023, she received eight months community service for aiding an abortion seeker.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/woman-jailed-over-abortion-an-expert-on-what-uk-law-actually-says-and-what-needs-to-change-207578

14.06.2023

Commentary

1861 Offences against the Person Act

1967 Abortion Act

Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020

Claire Pierson

decriminalisation of abortion

jailing women for abortion

A Controversial Court Ruling Has Britain’s Abortion Rights Groups Up in Arms

BY ARMANI SYED
JUNE 13, 2023

U.K. abortion rights groups are planning large demonstrations on Saturday outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice, after a woman was controversially jailed on Monday under an 1861 law for using drugs to induce a medical abortion past legal term limits.

The case has sparked outcry and calls for an overhaul of reproductive justice laws in the U.K., as well as the full decriminalization of abortion.

Continued: https://time.com/6286943/abortion-uk-law-jailed-woman/

UK -The two doctors rule for authorising abortion should be scrapped, recommends review

BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p563
Published 08 March 2023
Matthew Limb

The UK government is facing fresh pressure to overhaul abortion law after new research found strong backing among women and healthcare professionals for change.

The Shaping Abortion for Change (Sacha) study, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), recommended allowing nurses and midwives to authorise an abortion, prescribe abortion drugs, and perform vacuum aspirations as they do in miscarriage care. If adopted, this would mean scrapping the requirement under the Abortion Act 1967 for two doctors to authorise an abortion.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p563

09.03.2023

Commentary

1967 Abortion Act

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Matthew Limb

midwives and abortion

nurses and abortion

Shaping Abortion for Change study

Malta – UK parliamentarians write to Abela over ‘extreme concern’ about abortion laws

Small group of parliamentarians say UK's similar wording led to 'abortion on demand'

November 26, 2022
Times of Malta

Three UK parliamentarians and a number of members of the UK's House of Lords have written an open letter to Prime Minister Robert Abela to express "extreme concern" about proposed changes to Malta's abortion laws.

The letter was sent to Abela after the government unveiled legislative amendments that would allow doctors to terminate a pregnancy when a woman’s life or health is at serious risk.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/three-uk-mps-lords-write-abela-extreme-concern-abortion-laws.997614

26.11.2022