Scotland – Google panned for giving free ads to UK anti-abortion groups

Nov 30, 2025
By James Walker

GOOGLE has been giving free advertising to anti-abortion groups targeting pregnant women in Scotland and across the UK, the Sunday National can reveal.

Several crisis pregnancy helplines covertly run by anti-abortion groups have been given free ads throughout 2025 via Google Ad Grants – a scheme which gives nonprofits up to £7000 per month of free search advertising.

Continued: https://archive.is/m8xn2
(https://www.thenational.scot/news/25658467.google-panned-giving-free-ads-uk-anti-abortion-groups/)

30.11.2025

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Inside the right-wing push against abortion rights in Scotland

Nov 30, 2025
By James Walker

A RECENT review of Scotland's abortion laws led to widespread right-wing outrage last week. One clip that went particularly viral was a GB News segment featuring Lois McLatchie Miller, who works for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

“The Scottish Government have commissioned a report to suggest that they allow abortion all the way up to birth for most social reasons,” she told the broadcaster’s presenters.

Continued: https://archive.is/lcmwa
(https://www.thenational.scot/news/25659692.inside-right-wing-push-abortion-rights-scotland/)

UK – Call to end abortion pills by post after poisoning

Dec 9, 2024
Clare Worden, BBC News, Norfolk

An anti-abortion group has called for abortion medication to stop being accessible by post after a man was convicted of poisoning a woman with pills. Stuart Worby, 40, from Dereham, Norfolk, was jailed for 12 years for sexually assaulting the pregnant woman and giving her abortion medication.

Right To Life UK wants the government to suspend the ability for people to be sent this medication by post, which was introduced during the Covid pandemic, in light of the case. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said women needed to access safe abortions and should not be punished "for the actions of abusive men".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wrpje9le1o

09.12.2024

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British Pregnancy Advisory Service

UK – Buffer zones set to come in around abortion clinics

Sept 18, 2024
Kate Whannel, BBC

Buffer zones will come into force around abortion clinics in England and Wales from 31 October.

It will make it illegal to hand out anti-abortion leaflets within the buffer zone or obstruct anyone using or working at an abortion clinic.

The protection zones, which will prohibit protest, will extend to a 150-metre radius around abortion services and those convicted of breaking the new law will face an unlimited fine.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62m4g2drgdo

Number of abortions in England and Wales hits record levels

Official figures show 251,377 abortions were carried out in 2022, a 17% increase on previous year

Caroline Davies and agency
Fri 24 May 2024

The number of abortions in England and Wales has reached record levels, with financial pressures believed to be a factor in why women are choosing not to have a baby.

There were 251,377 abortions for women resident in the two nations in 2022, official figures from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show, which is the highest since the Abortion Act was introduced almost 60 years ago and a rise of 17% on the 2021 figure.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/24/number-abortions-england-wales-record-levels

24.05.2024

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From America with cash: Right-wing groups want to end abortion in the UK

A right-wing political and media ecosystem pushing a US-style anti-abortion agenda is gaining traction in the UK

Sian Norris
19 April 2024

Conservative MPs, hard-right media personalities, and US-backed Christian anti-abortion charities are working to spread their anti-abortion agenda ahead of a parliamentary debate on legislation that would stop women being imprisoned for terminating a pregnancy after 24 weeks.

Emboldened by their success in the United States with the Dobbs decision – the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the right to safe and legal abortion in the US – groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Edmund Burke Foundation are now seeking to rollback progress on reproductive rights around the world.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/us-anti-abortion-culture-war-uk-stella-creasy-amendement-/

‘Extreme’ US anti-abortion group ramps up lobbying in Westminster

The UK branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom has increased its spending and is forging ties with key MPs

Shanti Das, Home affairs correspondent
Sat 6 Apr 2024

A rightwing Christian lobby group that wants abortion to be banned has forged ties with an adviser to the prime minister and is drawing up policy briefings for politicians.

The UK branch of the US-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has more than doubled its spending since 2020 and been appointed a stakeholder in a parliamentary group on religious freedoms in a role that grants it direct access to MPs.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/06/extreme-us-anti-abortion-group-ramps-up-lobbying-in-westminster

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

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 – MPs back abortion clinic buffer zone law

Oct 18, 2022

Plans to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales have been backed by MPs.

Under the proposed law, harassing, obstructing or interfering with any woman attending an abortion clinic would become a criminal offence.

Protesters found guilty of breaching 150-metre buffer zones around clinics would face up to six months in jail.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63302710