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Pro-life Efforts Redouble as U.K. Embryo Bill Goes Back to House of Commons

By Hilary White

LONDON, October 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life groups in the UK are preparing for a final push against the Labour government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, which is set to return to the House of Commons for a vote October 22nd. What the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has described as "radical pro-abortion amendments" will be voted on on that day; the bill as a whole is scheduled to come to a vote later in the day.

John Smeaton, Director of SPUC, said today, "We are immensely grateful for these efforts. We need, however, a last push to reach people who have yet to take action."

"We know that MPs are receiving many letters," he added, "and we must reinforce this with phone calls too. Please do all you can. Please act now before it's too late to protect unborn children."
 
The main effect of the bill would be to allow the licensing of more procedures that will harm or kill embryos created in the laboratory. In the bill, IVF is presented as a way to create babies, not just for infertile couples, but for others who "want to use IVF to serve lifestyle choices." It also extends the ways in which embryos can be artificially created and manipulated - including allowing human/animal hybrid cloned embryos and genetic manipulation.

The bill, said SPUC, is "designed to make it easier to change the law in future to extend objectionable procedures like cloning."

The bill passed second reading in the House of Commons in May this year, with MPs voting 340 votes to 78. At that time, Mrs. Iris Robinson of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party told the House of Commons that the support for the bill was part of a general movement away from British moral and intellectual traditions.

"Too often the House and this country have suffered from woolly liberal thinking," she said. "Unless we stand firm on certain matters, the United Kingdom will become utterly morally bankrupt. As Members of the House, we should not be engaged in bringing society to its lowest common denominator."

In March, polls showed that the majority of the British public were against the government's proposals. 79 percent thought it is important to consider a child's "need for a father" in IVF, a criterion which the bill will abolish, thereby allowing lesbians to undergo IVF.  60 percent thought it is wrong to create animal-human embryos, and a majority, 51 percent, agreed that the creation of "saviour siblings" objectifies the child and denies him a choice in how its body is used.

Pro-life forces are mobilising across the UK. In Northern Ireland, the pro-life group Precious Life expects tens of thousands of Irish - both from Northern Ireland and from the Republic of Ireland - to attend a rally to protest attempts to use the bill to force the 1967 Abortion Act into the province. A group of six abortion crusading MPs, none of whom represent Northern Irish constituencies, have proposed an amendment to export abortion into Northern Ireland, a proposal which is opposed by the majority of Northern Irish citizens and all of the major political parties. Yesterday, Northern Irish MLAs warned that the attempt could trigger a constitutional crisis that may bring down the Northern Irish Assembly.

On Saturday 18 October, Family Life International has organised a prayer procession in London, starting at 1:30 pm at Westminster Cathedral and ending at Westminster Abbey at about 4pm. There will be a "mourning ceremony" at Westminster Bridge for the millions already killed by abortion.

The Annual Rosary Crusade of Reparation, starting 1:45 pm in the Cathedral piazza, will be held in London tomorrow, Saturday 11th October. Participants will offer their prayers for the defeat of the bill, walking in procession from Westminster Cathedral to the Brompton Oratory carrying the statue of Our Lady of Fatima and praying the full 15 decades of the Rosary.

SPUC is urgently calling upon British citizens to contact their MPs and ask that the anti-life amendments be defeated, as well as the bill as a whole.

To find out who your MP is:
http://www.spuc.org.uk/mps
Parliamentary switchboard 020 7219 3000.

Write to your MP at:
House of Commons,
London, SW1A 0AA.

For more information on the bill and how you can help:
http://www.spuc.org.uk/lobbying/hfe/

For more information on the Family Life International prayer rally at Westminster:
http://www.flionline.org/images/site_graphics/prayer_procession.pdf

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Attempts to Impose Legal Abortion on Northern Ireland will Trigger Constitutional Crisis say MLAs
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08100902.html

British MPs Defeat all Pro-Life Provisions in the HFE Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052106.html

UK Commons Embryo Bill Debate Heated with "Woolly Liberal Thinking"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051604.html

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