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"Women Should Have the Right to Choose" says Head of UK Parliamentary Pro-Life Group

British MPs have lost the sense of being authentically pro-life

By Hilary White

LONDON, May 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The vice-chairman of the British All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group (APPPLG), told the House of Commons yesterday that she is pro-abortion, but wishes women would choose life. The debates and the campaigns surrounding the Labour government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill have exposed the lack of an authentic pro-life viewpoint of some members of the APPPLG. They have also led some to question the integrity of the organisation as the pro-life voice of Parliament.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has called for the immediate resignation of Mrs. Claire Curtis-Thomas, the Labour MP for Crosby, who told the House, "For the record, and contrary to many of the statements that I have read this week which purport to know my views, I am not opposed to abortion. I believe that women should have the right to choose; I just hope that they do not choose to have an abortion."

Later in the debate, she also said, "I would be much happier with 12 weeks-that is where I stand. Let women have the choice, but make it at 12 weeks."

John Smeaton, Director of SPUC said, "There is no defence for her comments. They are clear statements that not only should abortion be allowed in law, but that abortion is a woman's right. She should resign immediately as a vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-life Group."

Throughout the months and weeks leading up to the votes this week on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, pro-life advocates were dismayed at the statements coming from those who are ostensibly on the same side, leading some to speculate that the pro-life movement in Britain is seriously philosophically compromised. The Passion for Life campaign of the APPPLG in which constituents were asked to contact MPs, produced a postcard mail-out that declared, "Abortion should be rare."

Pro-life Britons were outraged by the slogan that they condemned as "political pandering" and misrepresentation of the genuine pro-life position.

Opposition to the bill's anti-life provisions has been led by Lord Alton, a Catholic, who is regarded as a dedicated anti-abortion campaigner. But despite Alton's generalized opposition to abortion, he does not oppose it in all circumstances with exceptions for conditions such as anencephaly, and supports public funding of in vitro fertilisation. He has also voted on occasion for pro-homosexual legislation.

Another member of the Group and also a Catholic, Ann Widdecombe, the soon-to-retire MP for Maidstone and The Weald, is a prominent member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and an outspoken supporter of traditional family values. But despite her outspoken opposition to abortion, Widdecombe also is in favour of retaining in vitro fertilisation services that result in the deaths of uncounted thousands of human embryos yearly.

Privately, pro-life advocates in Britain have said that the APPPLG is simply not a pro-life organisation and should cease to present itself as the Parliamentary spokesmen for the pro-life movement.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Pro-life Efforts in Britain Undermined by Other Pro-Life Efforts as Crucial Abortion Decisions Being Made in Parliament
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052006.html

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