Important message. Please read immediately.

Dear Supporter,
In case you missed it, I am re-sending this important email from yesterday.

Your help is URGENTLY needed this autumn.

The rapid expansion of the Government's pills-by-post abortion scheme is having a catastrophic impact on unborn babies and their mothers:

* More babies than ever before are being KILLED by abortion on our shores
* More women and girls are being put at risk with record numbers of HOSPITALISATIONS resulting from unsupervised pill abortions
* Our opponents are cynically exploiting high-profile court cases (like Carla Foster’s) in a bid to ERADICATE the last remaining legal protections for unborn babies and introduce abortion on demand in the UK…. up to BIRTH.


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Meanwhile, we are witnessing very high levels of abortion coercion among women who want to KEEP their babies — abortion providers are ignoring this issue and it is largely being hidden by the mainstream media.

My email includes an UPDATE on the “Lydia” case:

Lydia felt pressured to abort her unborn child at 5 months gestation. She is suing the abortion provider and SPUC has agreed to pay her legal fees, which is straining its budget.

We must raise £100,000 by mid-October to fund Lydia’s upcoming court case AND finance other critically important pro-life projects this autumn, including:

1. The Justice for Baby Lily Campaign, which has just been launched, seeks to END the pills-by-post scheme in the UK
2. In Northern Ireland, going to court again to block the imposition of the Secretary of States abortion framework which is seeking to carry out 6,500 abortions per year in the Province
3. Meanwhile in Scotland, we are fighting MSP Gillian MacKay’s abortion clinic “buffer zone” Bill, which would see pro-lifers face a six-month prison term and a substantial fine for attending peaceful life-saving vigils.


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Read on to learn more:
AUTUMN APPEAL - Day 1 (Re-send)

Dear SPUC supporter,

The Justice for Baby Lily Campaign was launched last week at SPUC’s national conference in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

The campaign aims to END the abortion pills-by-post scheme, which has been operating in the UK since 2020.

The pill scheme led to the recent conviction of Carla Foster following the tragic late-term chemical abortion of her daughter, Lily, at 8 months gestation.

The abortion lobby is ruthlessly exploiting the Carla Foster conviction.

It has turned the case into a rallying cry for the entire ‘decriminalisation’ of abortion in the UK – in other words – making abortion LEGAL up to BIRTH… for ANY reason.

The Justice for Baby Lily
campaign is our biggest in years, and with the stakes so high, it needs to be.

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In a moment, referencing Freedom of Information Requests and other key research data, I will outline for you the dangers that lie in store for unborn babies and their mothers should the law change.

First, I want to provide you with an UPDATE on the case of ‘Lydia’.

Lydia is the woman whose unborn child was killed in a late-term abortion that she never wanted.

Last October, I wrote to you about her tragic case.

Lydia’s unborn child was aborted at close to 6 months after coming under enormous pressure from a doctor (who is a relative of her ex-partner).

A formal complaint was lodged with the body responsible for regulating doctors in the UK – yet astonishingly, the regulator decided NOT to take action against the GP.

What’s more, at the time of her abortion, Lydia:

* Had a mental health condition, which made her especially vulnerable
* No immediate family support on hand to help her resist the coercion
* Received no psychiatric assessment despite the abortion provider’s staff having prior knowledge that Lydia was suicidal as a result of the pressure she was under.

I am pleased to report that thanks to your generous financial assistance, Lydia is now in a position to take legal action against the abortion provider involved.

(For legal reasons, we are unable to name the provider at this point).

So far, at the completion of the preparatory stage, the costs involved amount to around £80,000.

We envisage total costs, including the trial phase, to be in the region of £150,000 (+VAT).

An expert legal opinion has been secured and Lydia will now initiate legal proceedings against the abortion provider in question for damages.

Lydia is suing her abortion provider on two grounds:

1. That the abortion provider didn’t take adequate care of their client with regard to her mental health condition
2. The abortion provider breached her right to informed consent.

Of course, there is no guarantee that Lydia will win in court. She would have to pay the other side’s costs if she lost.

We need to be prepared for that possibility, which would make Lydia liable for an unknown level of costs. I’d like to be able to have £50,000 to meet that threat should it arise.

Coerced abortion is sadly COMMONPLACE in the UK

A BBC survey commissioned in 2022 suggested that thousands of women like Lydia undergo abortions they don’t want every year.

* 15% of UK women aged 18-44 said they had faced pressure to abort their unborn child when they did not want to, according to the survey.

Fifteen per cent would equate to as many as 37,000 women who come under pressure to abort their child every year in England and Wales alone.

SPUC believes that a huge rise in the number of chemical (pill) abortions is fuelling coerced abortion.

Pills-by-post is exacerbating coercion because face-to-face consultations are no longer mandatory under the contentious scheme.

“PILLS-BY-POST” SCHEME IS FUELLING COERCED ABORTION

Chemical abortions now account for almost 9-in-10 of all abortions in England and Wales.

* Latest government figures show that 86% of all abortions there were by chemical pills
* In 2002, that figure was just 14% – which represents a five-fold increase over the 20-year-period to 2022.

In Scotland today, virtually ALL abortions are done with pills.

* In ten years, pill abortions there increased from 78.3% to 98.8% of abortions in 2022 (the remainder being surgical abortions).

The majority of chemical (pill) abortions are completed OUTSIDE a clinical setting.

Abortions in which mifepristone (the pill that kills the baby) and misoprostol (which expels the dead baby’s body) are taken outside of a medical setting have risen sharply since the introduction of the pills-by-post scheme in March 2020.
* Latest official data shows that just 1-in-5 abortions in England and Wales are performed entirely in a clinic or hospital
* It’s similar in Scotland, where just 18% of abortions took place within a clinical setting in 2022.

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PILLS-BY-POST RISK WOMEN’S HEALTH

The abortion lobby’s assertion that it is pro-women is a highly questionable one.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for them to justify this.

When a woman attends a clinic consultation for an abortion, she is seen alone and consent must be gained.

This helps to ensure that she is NOT coerced.

But today, thanks to the government’s pills-by-post policy, which they have pushed so hard for, around 4 in 5 UK abortions involve limited or no checks or medical supervision.

#1 Consider the psychological trauma involved when a mother must dispose of the remains of her unborn baby:

A woman may well be alone when she aborts and may also see the baby which is expelled.

Guidance from BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), the UK’s biggest abortion provider says:


“You can decide how you wish to dispose of the pregnancy remains. They can be flushed down the lavatory or wrapped in tissue, placed in a small plastic bag and put in the dustbin."


This ‘matter of fact’ stance not only denies the humanity and dignity due to the baby, but it totally disregards the emotional impact such inhumane treatment of its remains may have on the woman or girl involved.

This is how one woman who endured a pill abortion at home described her feelings:


"It was very hard when a big lump came out when I was in the shower.

I had not understood that it would be so obvious when the embryo came, had a shock. Felt like pushing.

Did not know what to do with the lump, would have wanted information before about how it can be and what to do with the embryo.

The pain, you can take – the hard part was to see the embryo."


#2 Consider, too, how the abortion lobby eagerly implemented a policy which is known to place women at greater risk of physical harm:

A large Swedish study has suggested that a shift to home abortions is the reason complications for chemical abortion have doubled in six years.

* Chemical abortions [taken at less than 12 weeks gestation] increased from 4.2% in 2008 to 8.2% in 2015


Even the pro-abortion World Health Organisation states that:


"Unsafe abortion – defined as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both – results in the deaths of 47 000 women every year and leaves millions temporarily or permanently disabled."


Freedom of information [FOI] requests to NHS Trusts reveal a massive spike in UK abortion pill hospitalisations.

An investigation by UK health consultancy Percuity, headed by Kevin Duffy, SPUC’s former Director of Research, revealed that:

* 10,000 women (1-in-17) who used pills-by-post-abortion services in 2020 suffered severe side effects that required hospital treatment
* 3% of women required surgical evacuation of the remains of an unborn child after abortion pill failure, while 2.3% were treated for haemorrhages (heavy bleeding).


Record 999 ambulance call-outs

(FOI) Requests to six ambulance trusts in England have also revealed that ambulance call-outs linked to DIY abortion pills being taken at home rocketed by 64% in 2020.

An FOI request by Darren Millar, Member of the Senedd for Clwyd West, revealed that ambulance call-outs to women in Wales who had completed a chemical abortion at home had doubled in 2020 following the introduction of the pills-by-post scheme.

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#3 Consider providing a powerful drug with a 10-week gestational limit to a woman or girl without a dating scan, knowing how difficult it is for her to determine precise fetal age and how dangerous taking the drug past that limit could be for her:

* A South African study found an average of 19 days of underestimation of gestational age by women compared with ultrasound
* In one UK study, more than 50% of women having abortions after 13 weeks (just three weeks past the 10-week limit) needed subsequent surgical intervention.

Abortion providers like BPAS persistently downplay the suffering often involved in pill abortions, but the evidence is hard to ignore.
When Carla Foster was convicted this summer for taking abortion pills that resulted in the death of her 8-month-old unborn daughter, Lily, it sparked an astonishing response from the abortion lobby.

Rather than apologising for the pills-by-post scheme (which they had advocated) and seeking its immediate withdrawal, the lobby instead announced a campaign to remove the existing restrictions so that dangerous late-term abortions are more likely.

Their campaign aims to achieve this by requiring Parliament to amend section 58 and repeal section 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act (OAPA), which would make the 1967 Abortion Act redundant.

* Section 58 stipulates: A woman is guilty of an offence if she unlawfully procures her own miscarriage
* Section 59 makes it clear that: Anyone who supplies drugs or instruments to be unlawfully used to procure abortion is guilty of an offence.

And following on from the Carla Foster case, 22-year-old Bethany Cox is set to go on trial at Teesside Crown Court (Middlesbrough) in January, charged with procuring an abortion under the OAPA.

More PROSECUTIONS for illegal abortions have taken place under OAPA in the past eight months than in the previous 160 years (when there were just 3 convictions).

Our opponents are shamelessly spinning this statistic in a bid to make their case for decriminalising abortion in the UK convincing.

But rather than making a stronger case for a change in the law, it simply illustrates:

* How rare prosecutions such as Carla Foster’s actually are, and
* How difficult it would be for mere ‘regulations’ to keep women safe when the force of law and the threat of imprisonment currently are unable to do this adequately.

By highlighting the deadly and dangerous nature of the pills-by-post scheme, the Justice for Baby Lily Campaign will demonstrate how necessary sections 58 and 59 of the OAPA are.
The campaign will involve three key elements:


1. Parliamentary

A tried and tested Postcard Campaign is being launched petitioning the Secretary of State for Health and the relevant minister in the UK devolved governments calling for an end to the dangerous and deadly pills-by-post scheme.

Estimated cost: £18,000


2. Media

NEW ways are needed to get out the campaign message now, too.

Growing censorship and bias against the pro-life movement from social media platforms like Google and Facebook are making mainstream media channels much harder to navigate.

Investment in a state-of-the-art recording studio will enable us to promote home-grown SPUC content to promote the campaign and reach a wider audience.

Our message must also be heard in popular broadcast news interviews and the press wherever possible, too.

Attaining that important coverage will require the services of a professional media consultant.

Estimated cost: £32,000

3. Face-to-Face

With a record 272,000 projected abortions in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland last year (2022), that‘s 272,000 ‘conversations’ that urgently need to take place.

SPUC’s brand new Heart to Heart project aims to bypass Big Tech censorship and start those conversations.

This will involve enabling SPUC’s UK branch network to speak directly with members of the public about abortion in town centres, churches and popular public events.

It will cost an estimated £400 to train, administer, and supply each SPUC branch with the required merchandise, stall, equipment and public permits.

Total estimated cost: £24,000
Can I call on your support today?
The current financial climate is proving extremely difficult for SPUC.

We must ensure that our staff receive a fair wage as their families contend with the sharp rise in the cost of living.

At the same time, we find ourselves fighting to protect babies and safeguard mothers on multiple fronts at once this autumn including:

1. The Justice for Baby Lily campaign to END the extremely deadly and dangerous abortion pills-by-post scheme in the UK and buck the rapid upward trend in abortion killings in the UK.

2. Challenging Northern Ireland's extreme abortion regime in the courts.

SPUC is appealing an earlier court ruling which sanctioned the Secretary of State’s plans to deliver 6,500 abortions annually in the Province.


3. Fighting for justice for “Lydia” in the courts.

4. Ending UK aid to China and other overseas countries where coerced abortion is suspected.

Your kind donations of £20 and £35 and £50 and £100 are so essential.

They are the backbone of SPUC’s work.

Without them, school visits and media appearances that ensure the pro-life message is heard across the UK would have to be curtailed.

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Donations of £500 or £1,000 or £5,000 or £10,000 or more are vital too.

They enable SPUC to seek justice in the courts for babies and mothers whose lives have been brutally ended or blighted by abortion and who have no one else to turn to for help.

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Thank you for standing by our babies and for caring so much.
PS I was delighted to see so many people (especially families) in attendance at last month's annual March for Life in London.

The event attracted over 7,000 people, and your donations helped make it possible for some of that number to participate.

PPS – I wish that I could tell you we are witnessing a thawing of the authorities' attitudes towards censorship of public support for the unborn.

However, in Scotland, a so-called "buffer zone law" is being proposed by Gillian MacKay, MSP.

It would criminalise all pro-life activities in the vicinity of abortion facilities, subjecting first-time offenders to a 6-month jail sentence and up to 2 years in prison for subsequent breaches.

We are fighting against formidable opponents with incomparable levels of funding on multiple fronts.

That is why I must urge you once again to donate to our work TODAY, if you possibly can.

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