How can we successfully defend unborn children “despite” online censorship

AUTUMN APPEAL

Dear Supporter

Gillian Mackay MSP has now lodged the proposed Abortion Services Safe Access Zones (Scotland) Bill.

This bill would outlaw peaceful, prayerful pro-life vigils outside Scottish abortion facilities.

Other censorship bills have passed into law already in England, Wales and Northern Ireland already.

Each is designed to stifle debate and cover up the biggest human rights violation in British history.

Free speech (and the right to assemble publicly and peacefully proclaim it) is a direct threat to the ongoing abortion holocaust which killed more than a quarter of a million (around 270,000) unborn children in the UK last year alone.

For it to continue, absolute silence is demanded to hide the unspeakable truth that every abortion kills an unborn baby and often results in physical and psychological harm to the mother involved.

If the Mackay Bill passes, it will put in place a 150-metre “safe access zone” around every facility that performs abortions in Scotland.

Within this censorship zone, it would be prohibited to:

* Persistently, continuously, or repeatedly occupy a safe access zone
* Impede or block somebody’s path or entrance to abortion services
* Intimidate or harass a person
* Seek to influence or persuade a person concerning their access to or employment in connection with abortion services
* Demonstrate using items such as leaflets, posters, and pictures specifically related to abortion
* Photograph, film, or record a person in the zone.

For a first-time offence, those found in breach of a “safe access zone” could be fined or face a six-month prison sentence.

For repeat offences, that sentence could be increased to up to TWO years.

(This is even more extreme than the buffer zones introduced through the Public Order Bill in England and Wales, where imprisonment was ruled out as a penalty.)

Draconian Censorship is Taking Place Online Too

I wrote to you recently explaining how Big Tech companies are no friends of the pro-life movement and how their powerful influence stretches around the globe.

Irish abortion referendum

The 2018 referendum resulted in abortion being legalised in Ireland.

Google and Facebook blocked advertising on their popular social media platforms (including YouTube), a move which negatively and disproportionately impacted the pro-life campaign.

US Supreme Court

The Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade resulted in some US states (like Texas) effectively banning abortion.

The likes of Microsoft, Apple, Google and Meta (parent company of Facebook) responded by announcing that they would cover employees' travel expenses should they travel out of a “pro-life” state for abortions.

“Shadow banning” is another technique that Big Tech is using to “silence” truths they don’t want the general public hearing about (including the full horrors of abortion).

Shadow banning is defined as:

“The practice used in online moderation that consists of preventing a user’s content from being seen by others – either partially or totally – without the user being notified or aware of it.”

Last year, Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter (now known as X), allowed journalists full access to emails from the social media platform's previous management which revealed the widespread shadow-banning of conservative accounts.

These included a:

* “Trends Blacklist,” which made sure tweets would not trend
* “Search Blacklist” which made it almost impossible to find certain accounts or tweets
* “Do Not Amplify” setting, which suppressed tweets from getting the kind of interaction they normally would receive if left alone.

I suspect that SPUC has been the victim of shadowing banning, yet with the financial help of supporters like you, our social media accounts have exceeded 3.5 million annual interactions with the public for the first time.

This breaks down as follows:

The stark reality is that our opponents want us shut down.

That way they don’t have to answer for the unspeakable horrors associated with abortion.

They are going to extraordinary lengths to stop the gruesome truth from getting out.

They are prepared to deny women the “choice” of keeping their babies by criminalising offers of help at abortion facilities and shadow-ban social media accounts that dare question their anti-life, anti-woman narrative.

Staying a step ahead of the censors

When it comes to spreading the truth about abortion and escaping censorship, it’s vital that we have as many strings to our bow as possible.

For every communication channel that they try to close down to silence pro-life speech, I want to open up another.

That's why I need your help today to step up SPUC’s face-to-face public outreach including:

1. Project Truth


The UK's largest youth street outreach initiative.

Each summer, team members run pro-life roadshows where they openly discuss abortion with the public.

In addition to its work in UK towns and city centres, I would like to add university campuses as locations for Project Truth to operate.

2. Heart-to-Heart


Project Truth provides the successful template for this brand-new public outreach project which will be operated by SPUC’s 56-strong branch and activist network.

However, with the greater levels of manpower that our branch network can offer, the Heart-to-Heart project will be able to reach considerably more of the public with the pro-life message.

3. Petition Day

Church congregations, public events and political conferences offer opportunities to strike up intelligent conversations with people about abortion and dispel many of the myths spawned by years of pro-abortion propaganda.

This summer SPUC branches and activists ran a successful pilot Petition Day, collecting thousands of signatures and attracting new supporters. Plans are in place to expand this important public outreach programme.

4. Parliamentary Events

In May, SPUC presented its investigative report into British abortion aid to China at Westminster.

The report drew Parliamentarians' attention to the scandalous human rights abuses perpetrated against China’s minority Uyghur population.

A petition was launched calling on the Government to end UK aid to countries suspected of coercive abortion practices.
£100,000 must be raised this month in order to implement these vital projects.

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Will you give £15 or £25 or £50 or £100 or £150 or £500 or £750 or £1,000 or £5,000 or more so that we can open up new and effective lines of communication and beat abortion censorship?

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Thank you for helping to ensure that the truth about abortion in Britain is never silenced.

Yours in defence of life.

John Deighan
Chief Executive

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