Court action needed to combat pro-life censorship

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SPRING Appeal

Dear
SPUC supporter,
I am talking with another pro-life organisation about jointly funding two major pro-life free-speech cases in the courts.

Will you give £15 or £25 or £50 or £75 or £100 or £20 or £500 or £1,000 to fund these actions and STOP censorship of the pro-life movement?
Donate ([link removed])
Of course, when it comes to legal challenges, there are no guarantees.

But win or lose, the opportunity to send out a strong message at a time when the forces which want the UK pro-life movement silenced and shut down is too important to pass up.

Amid growing hostility towards the pro-life community, our freedom to speak out in defence of unborn babies, warn women of the dangers they face from DIY abortions, and even pray for unborn life is being steadily stripped away, including:

1. Buffer zone laws

It is now a criminal offence to offer last-minute advice OR, indeed, provide a woman seeking an abortion with a life-giving alternative so she can keep her baby.

Bans on silently and peacefully gathering at abortion facilities are already in force in:
* England
* Wales
* Northern Ireland

A bill is currently before MSPs at Holyrood, which, if passed, would extend the ban to Scotland.

2. Big Tech election interference

FACEBOOK CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that his company deliberately banned pro-life adverts from running on the social media site during Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum.
“In Ireland in the last year there was a referendum on abortion,” said Zuckerberg

“During that election leading up to that referendum, a bunch of pro-life American groups advertised … to try and influence public opinion there.

“We went to the Irish and asked folks there:

‘Well how do you want us to handle this?

You have no laws on the books that are relevant for whether we should be allowing this kind of speech in your election, and really, this doesn’t feel like the kind of thing a private company should be making a decision on.’

“And their response at the time was: ‘We don’t currently have a law, so you need to make whatever decision you want to make’.

“We ended up not allowing the ads.”

Even the Irish Times, which has a pro-abortion slant, seemed to view the development with suspicion:

"If you wanted further evidence of whom the Google move favours, look no further than the reaction of Yes campaigners and supporters, who wholeheartedly welcomed and applauded the decision."

3. Attacks on University Campuses

Last week, I wrote to you about the stomach-churning attack on the Manchester Pro- Life Society.

A mob of between 200-300 pro-abortion supporters descended on a small group of pro-life students holding a private meeting.
Only a heavy police presence prevented physical assaults on the pro-lifers.

This outrageous act of violence and intimidation was just the latest in a string of orchestrated attacks on pro-life students across the UK.

Since 2021, attempts to silence pro-life views on university campuses have grown in number and ferocity, including:

Exeter Students for Life, a pro-life student group, received a torrent of hateful abuse online, including death threats.
* A pro-abortion petition seeking to have the Exeter University pro-life group “cancelled” was also launched
* One pro-abortion abuser threatened the group directly, posting online: “Fav place in Exeter gonna be the BOTTOM of the quay if u ain’t careful.”
* Another said: “Someone beat him up.” a comment directed at a male member of the group.

Pro-abortion students trashed a pro-life stall at Oxford University’s Freshers’ Fair in an unprovoked attack on free speech.

The stall, representing and run by Oxford Students for Life (OSFL), was destroyed when a group of students threw the contents of the stand into a bin, which was then taken outside.
* The offenders then remonstrated with security and demanded that the OSFL stall not be reinstated
* Rather than condemn the attack Oxford Student Union said that it understood “the emotive responses and frustrations towards the presence of an anti-abortion stall”

OSFL was then targeted online by other Oxford groups and individuals seeking to have it “cancelled”.
* One person posted on Facebook: “Is anyone else furious that there is an anti-abortion society at Oxford? How is it even allowed to exist and advertise at the Freshers’ Fair?”

UK University rejects Catholic Chaplain for expressing pro-life views

The University of Nottingham refused to officially recognise Catholic priest Father David Palmer as its campus Chaplain because of his pro-life views.

Father Palmer refused to amend social media posts where he spoke out against abortion and assisted suicide.
* On Twitter (now X), Father Palmer referred to an assisted suicide bill as an attempt to “kill the vulnerable.”
* He also referred to abortion as “the slaughter of babies.”

The University of Nottingham demanded that he amend the wording of his pro-life views on social media, but Father Palmer refused.

Father Palmer said: “I was told it was fine for me to have this opinion, but they were concerned with how I expressed it. When I asked how they would suggest I express it, quite remarkably, they suggested I should call it ‘end of life care,’ which is a completely unacceptable policing of religious belief.”

Hostility towards pro-lifers at Nottingham University is nothing new

Medical student Julia Rynkiewicz received a formal apology and financial compensation after the University of Nottingham suspended her because she expressed pro-life views.

The student was subject to a four-month fitness-to-practice investigation by the University in 2019 and was blocked from entering hospital placements.

A survey conducted in 2021 by the Alliance of Pro-Life Students found that one in four students are “threatened, abused, alarmed or distressed” for being pro-life at university in the UK.
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The Handyside ruling

In the key case Handyside v UK (1976) 1 EHRR 737, the European Court of Human Rights declared that:

“Freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society, one of the basic conditions for its progress and for the development of every man

…it is applicable not only to `information' or `ideas' that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference … but also to those that offend, shock or disturb…such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no `democratic society'."

Ironically, this case—which it could be argued has helped undermine traditional family values in Britain for almost half a century—now, in theory at least, provides a legal basis for safeguarding the UK pro-life movement.

That’s’ because the UK—regardless of Brexit—is still a member of the European Convention on Human Rights and gives effect to it through the Human Rights Act 1998.

By signing up to the Convention the UK has accepted treaty obligations in international law to secure human rights for everyone in its jurisdiction.

These include the right to life, liberty, fair trials, and freedom of speech and assembly.
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Problems with policing pro-life bans

Cracks in the legislation which has criminalised pro-life vigils are starting to appear.

FIRST: In England, the Government has taken the unprecedented step of consulting with the public after passing a law to help ensure that it is interpreted objectively by the police.

The consultation will inform the guidance on how police forces in England will enforce buffer zones legislation.

When buffer zones were debated in the House of Lords, Peers from across the political divide with different views on abortion were concerned that the threat to free speech and assembly would harm vulnerable women and criminalise people for the simple act of offering a leaflet.

I am encouraged that pro-life censorship is being viewed as an issue which transcends firmly held ideological positions, which is another reason why I believe now is the right time to take legal action.

SECOND: The repeated arrests – without prosecution - of pro-lifers, most famously Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, for silently praying in the vicinity of abortion facilities is not only disturbing but is also raising troubling questions over the law.
Will you give £15 or £25 or £50 or £75 or £100 or £500 or £1,000 or more today to help SPUC stand firm against attacks on pro-life free speech and assembly?
Donate ([link removed])
Thank you for all you do to build a future free from the horror of abortion.

Yours in Defence of Life
John Deighan
Chief Executive
PS - Pro-lifers want to see precious babies protected, not slaughtered. We care about women and the dreadful toll that abortion is taking on them too.

We seek dialogue, not confrontation.

But “cancel culture” is destroying reputations and livelihoods and threatening the lives of good men and women.

Meanwhile, millions of unborn children are being mercilessly killed.

SPUC’s legal team tell me that our share of the legal costs for the court actions will amount to somewhere in the region of £37,500.

I urge you to consider donating today to this important initiative if you can.
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