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University of Kent ethics professor Sally Sheldon

LONDON, England, April 11, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The United Kingdom has awarded a pro-abortion activist more than half a million pounds to write a book and create lessons on abortion for schoolchildren.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council gave £512,000 ($635,340) to the University of Kent's Sally Sheldon to research and author a study on the country's Abortion Act, which legalized the procedure in 1967.

Professor Sheldon is an abortion activist, fighting for unrestricted abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. A trustee of the nation's largest abortion provider (“Pregnancy Advisory Service”), Sheldon championed in March a bill to make abortion legal without any limits and for any reason until birth.  

She has written in favor of sex selection abortions and recruited others who have defended sex-selection abortions for her project.

Sheldon, who teaches ethics at the University of Kent Law School, publicly opposed a proposed sex-selection abortion ban, calling it “flawed” and “criminalizing women.” In an article defending sex-selection abortions, she propagates the falsehood that carrying to term is more dangerous than aborting one's baby, and equates perceived “mental health” with physical health.

Part of her tax-funded assignment is to create teaching packs for schools and a website for children on abortion.  

Besides the pro-abortion book and school curricula, the University of Kent proclaimed that Sheldon has been commissioned to write “a range of academic articles in law, history, sociology and gender studies journals; a series of shorter papers for practitioner journals; at least nine conference papers,” and “active dissemination of research via the media and social networking sites.”

Labor MP Robert Flello criticized the public expenditure, questioning whether Sheldon would give a fair and balanced presentation.

“If public money is going to be used to fund work that is not only going to be a book but is going to fund materials going into our schools in support of pro-abortion propaganda, then it is an utterly outrageous use of public money,” he told the Daily Mail.

“At a time when people are not being able to get access to wheelchairs, when people are having hospital appointments delayed, to have public money squandered in this way is just disgraceful,” Flello said.

MP Maria Caulfield also blasted the project.

“I would demand that the government department funding this put a stop to it,” the former medical researcher said. “(M)y concern is that this money has been donated and will be used to fuel an argument that won't necessarily be impartial.”

Sheldon's Abortion Act study begins in May and is expected to be complete in 2018. The project presentation is designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the legalization of abortion in England.  

In Sheldon’s view, any restrictions on abortion are outdated. She calls the Act that legalized abortion-on-demand but with limitations “a remnant of the attitude of a previous age.” In an article pushing for liberalization of England's abortion law, she characterized the 1967 law as condescending “paternalism.”

The ethics professor says the law should be “living,” “evolving,” expandable, and adapted to societal changes making abortion popularly acceptable.

Sheldon advocates “taking seriously the idea of ‘living law:’ law exists only in its interpretation.” She explains that “while the text of the Abortion Act has changed little since 1967, its interpretation has evolved significantly.”

Apparently included in Sheldon's study will be gender ideology.

“The story of the Abortion Act is also the story of evolving ideas of gender and family,” she said, and “changes to … the ethical values that inform modern medicine.”

Sheldon already is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to research abortion drugs.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council is the tax disbursement arm of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Among its funded projects was a £50,000 study that recommended deleting “Ladies” and “Gents” from public bathrooms.