** In case you missed it, I am resending my email from yesterday.

It contains important details of a disturbing strategy playing out in plain sight to undermine the pro-life movement and rob the most vulnerable in our society of protection under the LAW. Our opponents are doing this by attacking three key political and human rights, namely the:

1. Right to Assembly
2. Right to Free Speech
3. Right to Life

Read on to learn more and find out what SPUC is doing to fight back.

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Dear Friend and Supporter,

Pippa Knight (below) has a rare brain condition known as Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy leaving her in an unconscious state and in need of life support.
Last December, bosses at London's Evelina Children's Hospital sought a ruling from the courts to sanction the removal of 5-year-old Pippa’s life support.

They claimed that ending her life would be in Pippa’s best interests.

At the High Court in January, Mr Justice Poole ruled that the hospital could remove Pippa’s life-sustaining treatment and end her life.

In February, Pippa’s mother, Paula Parfitt, from Strood, Kent, went to the Court of Appeal in London in a bid to stop her life support being switched off.

Though Pippa’s medical prognosis is not a promising one, her legal team pointed out that she was in no pain and there is "genuine scope for debate" about what
Pippa’s “best interests” actually are.

Pippa’s mum wanted her daughter’s life support moved home so that her little girl could die peacefully surrounded by family, and, should one arise, take advantage of any possible future advance in medical science.

Paula argues that this is very much more in Pippa’s best interests.
Pippa’s mum had called for a trial of a portable ventilation unit to see whether Pippa could be sufficiently stabilised to come home.

Her call for a home ventilation trial was backed by several independent clinicians regarded as experts in their field.
These included specialists from the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, who believed – and remain convinced – that home-relocation for Pippa is a feasible option.

SPUC met all the costs of Pippa’s appeal in full.

In expressing her gratitude to SPUC donors for backing Pippa’s High Court appeal, Paula Parfitt said:

“Pippa became ill when she was 20-months-old, but SPUC has given her a second chance.

“I’m grateful not just for the financial support, but for the prayers of SPUC supporters for Pippa, and for trying to save her with love.

“I don’t understand why the hospital and the court wouldn’t let me find out whether Pippa could come home to be cared for with all her family around her, when two independent doctors from reputable hospitals in England both said that they thought this was worth trying.

“Instead, the court has decided that all Pippa’s treatment should be withdrawn so that she dies.”

Pippa’s mum gets the news she’s been dreading

On 23 March, Lady Justice King, Lord Justice Baker and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing upheld the original judgment.

The ruling saw Paula’s request for a portable ventilator trial rejected, with the order that her life support be switched off, which will result in her death.

Just days prior to the judgment, Paula was able to take Pippa outside the hospital building attached to a portable ventilator.
Pippa’s lawyers had argued that the original judgment was wrong because it had not taken “into account the non-medical benefits to be derived from living at home.”

Who knows what seeing Pippa outdoors on a portable ventilator enjoying the early spring sunshine could have made to the outcome?

On hearing that her appeal had been rejected, Paula said:

"I just want Pippa to have every possible chance to come home and be with her family."

SPUC’s executive committee readily agreed to fund an appeal at the Supreme Court to give Pippa one last chance at life.

Lawyers were instructed and an appeal application was made to the court.

Hopes of Supreme Court appeal dashed at eleventh hour

Then we learned on Maundy Thursday that the Supreme Court had refused Paula leave to appeal, slamming closed the final legal route open to her for saving Pippa.

SPUC spoke to Paula after the news broke and she is understandably devastated.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more heroic example of a loving mother.

She asks that you keep Pippa and her family in your prayers.

SPUC is not taking this blow lying down

SPUC believes Pippa’s mum is right to expect society to treasure and protect innocent life, especially the lives of people with significant disabilities who deserve special protection.

Human rights do not stand or fall on the say-so of a court of law.

They rest on our being human alone.

Indeed, every right and freedom we enjoy, from healthcare to education, is utterly meaningless without it.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is clear that a child:

“as far as possible, [has] the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”

Pippa’s life support, therefore, should NEVER be switched off without very serious and compelling reasons.

Human rights must carry more weight.

As we have seen from this case, an alarming view that life is no longer a benefit to some people with disabilities is held by our courts.

This undermines the most fundamental human right of all, the right to life.

We must fight back and demand full legal recognition for the right to life in our country, otherwise we will see many more victims like Pippa and her family.

Though Pippa lost her appeal, her legal challenge was NOT in vain.

1. Nothing sends out the signal that human life is cheap and expendable more than standing by and doing nothing when concerning cases like Pippa’s arise.

2. Next time hospital bosses consider ending a patient’s life, Pippa’s appeal may give them serious pause for thought.

3. Pippa’s case has helped generate much-needed publicity around the importance of every human life and the right of parents to care for their children.

When cases like Pippa’s are reported by the BBC and Daily Mail, this puts the judiciary under the microscope, making judges more publicly accountable for their decisions.

We must make it clear that public institutions like the NHS are there to serve the people, not the other way around.

No institution can be allowed to get away with deciding who lives and who dies with impunity.

And we must realise HOW our opponents are going all out to force their agenda on the weakest and most vulnerable of our country.

The abortion lobby’s strategy is two-fold:

FIRST, to get approval from government, the judiciary and the big corporations for their deadly agenda.

SECOND, to attack and undermine our legal rights, so that anyone opposing them will have little chance of success appealing to the courts.

This strategy is playing out in plain sight. The fundamental rights our opponents fear most and are now targeting are:

Right to Assembly – MP Rupa Huq’s amendment to the Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts Bill would impose “exclusion zones” around abortion clinics and see peaceful pro-lifers arrested for offering help to women who may want to keep their babies.

Right to Free Speech – As we enter into the “new normal” era, the list of pro-life social media accounts being “deplatformed” by firms like YouTube grows longer by the week.

Right to Life – The upcoming government consultation on DIY abortions could be used to make this horrendous practice permanent, endangering women and further eroding the right to life of unborn babies.

Our opponents know that “real” human rights with “substance” would END abortion tomorrow.

That’s why SPUC is launching a counter-strategy this year to endorse and uphold people’s fundamental personal rights with:

1. Legal challenges to uphold key political and human rights
2. Parliamentary lobbying backed by our national branch network
3. Educational outreach to schools, colleges and universities
4. Media coverage providing publicity in the national and regional press.

Will you back SPUC’s legal actions and other vital pro-life work?

Your personal involvement in this war on innocent life is the key to winning it.

The final bill for Pippa’s legal appeal came to £132k.

That’s significantly more than we’d allowed for when planning SPUC’s 2021 budget and the appeal has left a sizeable hole in our finances.

If that hole is not filled, the vital programme of work set out above may have to be cut back in order to make up the shortfall.

We must raise £50k by the end of April to cover all the outstanding legal fees and replenish our legal defence fund.

It's vital we’re in a good place financially to act as and when new attacks on our fundamental rights arise.

If everyone reading this email today gave a gift in the range of £10, £15, £50 or £100, we would be home and dry.

Donate ([link removed])
Offerings of £250 or £500 to £1000 or more would ensure that the gap in the budget is plugged much sooner, releasing funds immediately for NEW legal challenges.
Donate ([link removed])
Pledging a regular gift of £5, £10, or £15 a month – or increasing your existing monthly gift by a similar amount – helps enormously too.

Just like with a family budget, it helps to know in advance what money is coming in, especially when planning financially demanding projects like a legal challenge.

It really doesn’t matter at what level of support you can afford to give today. A pound here and a pound there soon adds up.

What’s important is that vulnerable people, like Pippa, aren’t abandoned because no financial backing was available to fight for them.
Donate ([link removed])
Thank you sincerely for ALL that you have done, and are doing, to protect and uphold the dignity of human life.

Yours in defence of life
John Smeaton
Chief Executive

P.S. Britain’s laws ought to put the most vulnerable members of society – like Pippa and babies in the womb – FIRST.

But tragically, they don’t.

That is why I am inviting you to join with SPUC today and support our campaign for real human rights with “real” substance.

Every donation – big or small – helps protect human life from conception to natural death, and moves us a step closer to ending the evil scourge of abortion which is so horribly afflicting our country today.
Donate ([link removed])

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