The Human Rights Act didn't protect Pippa and it won't protect you

Day 2: Why Pippa's case is so vital for us ALL

Dear Friend and Supporter,

The Human Rights Act 1998 is a list of rights and freedoms which everyone in the UK is guaranteed.

It’s no accident that the “right to life” sits at the very top of this list of rights.

By placing the right to life “top”, those who drafted this pivotal law (though they will never admit it) are acknowledging what the pro-life side has said for years:

Without the “right to life”, ALL other human rights are utterly meaningless.

The truth is, the Human Rights Act is a hopelessly hollow law.

Although unborn children are undeniably fully human, the courts refuse to apply the right-to-life article of the Human Rights Act to anyone below the age of “9 months from conception”.

As a result, 200,000 innocent human lives are cruelly snuffed out by abortion every single year, all “under the protection of the law”.

And it’s not just the “right to life” article which rings hollow in the Human Rights Act.

The “right to participate in free elections” is equally void.

Being free to vote is futile when the government can override the will of the majority of voters at will.

This is precisely what happened in October 2019, when the Westminster government pushed through the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act, ostensibly to break the political stalemate which had stopped the Northern Ireland Assembly passing laws for two years.

An abortion amendment tagged on to the Act, however, was a Trojan horse used by Westminster to smuggle a radical abortion framework into the Province without the consent of voters or their democratically elected representatives.

This blatant power grab was a move more akin to a lawless nation than a country deemed the world over as the “Cradle of Democracy”.
Most people and politicians in Northern Ireland are strongly pro-life.
* As recently as 2016, the democratically elected Northern Ireland Assembly debated abortion legislation and voted overwhelmingly not to change the law in any way
* Every Northern Irish MP taking up their seat at Westminster voted against the Northern Ireland Act’s abortion amendment in 2019
* Northern Ireland’s Attorney General at the time, John Larkin, came out publicly and warned that the abortion amendment was inconsistent with human rights texts
* Of the 21,244 submissions to a public consultation in late 2019, 79% expressed opposition to the provision of abortion beyond that already permitted.

Abortions set to rocket

In 2017/18, under the previously heavily restricted abortion laws operating in the Province, there were just 12 abortions in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland’s restrictive laws are estimated to have prevented the deaths of more than 100,000 unborn babies since 1967.

Should the new abortion framework be fully implemented, abortions in Northern Ireland are projected to rise dramatically to more than 6,000-per-year.

Fifteen months on from the Act’s passing, the Westminster government is once again attempting to override the will of the Northern Ireland people on abortion.

Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, wants the full and speedy implementation of abortion there as laid down in a radical UN report.

But SPUC is questioning the basis on which Mr Lewis is attempting to seize powers over abortion policy.

Now that the Northern Ireland Assembly is once again functioning fully, matters relating to abortion should be “devolved” and left to the Assembly alone to settle.

Westminster has no business interfering.

What’s more, the radical abortion framework Brandon Lewis is so keen to enforce is entirely the product of an unelected and unaccountable UN committee – the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

CEDAW’s blueprint for abortion in Northern Ireland contains a terrifyingly illiberal list of “recommendations”:
* Abortion “information” and “counselling” must be made freely available in schools (even religious schools) who could be required by law to signpost schoolchildren to abortion centres behind their parents’ backs.

Groups like SPUC could be refused entry into classrooms, depriving youngsters of the only effective antidote against unbridled abortion brainwashing.

* Sexual health “services” at hospitals, clinics and pharmacies must be funded by the state to ensure abortion “affordability and accessibility”.

Of course, by refusing to participate in abortions, or dole out abortion-inducing pills, medical professionals exercising their conscientious objection rights will face grave difficulties.

* Sex education must become a “compulsory curriculum component” and lessons must be “scientifically accurate”.

We fear this will see real science being replaced by politically correct “truths” that deny the humanity of the foetus – and thus deny unborn children their inviolable right to life.

* And women must be “protected” from “harassment by anti-abortion protesters by investigating complaints, prosecuting and punishing perpetrators”.

This is the clearest signal yet that our opponents want peaceful pro-life demonstrations outlawed and the participants criminalised, even imprisoned.

The course the Westminster government has taken is thoroughly unprincipled. It has admitted that the CEDAW recommendations "are not binding and do not constitute international obligations" but it is nevertheless determined to enforce them against the will of the people.

By compelling Northern Ireland Assembly ministers to comply with the radical CEDAW agenda, the Secretary of State is both undermining devolution and stripping locally elected Ministers of the power invested in them by the Province’s voters.

That’s why SPUC is calling on Northern Ireland’s pro-life politicians to take a stand and act immediately to protect unborn babies.

Politicians called on to walk out

By shutting down the Stormont Executive and opening negotiations to restore power to a locally elected and accountable government, there is hope that we can work to restore legal protection for Northern Ireland’s unborn babies.

Whether pro-life or pro-abortion, this sinister development should concern every right-thinking member of our country.

If history teaches us anything at all, it’s that when our fundamental rights are cast aside, no one group can ever be safe.

It is always the weakest, most vulnerable and politically despised in society who are at most risk of paying the price.

Too many human rights today are ringing hollow.

We must demand real human rights, with real substance.

Our opponents know that strong inviolable personal rights would END abortion very quickly.

That’s why their goal is to undermine and erode our fundamental rights to the point that they no longer have force in law.

And that is why an effective counter-strategy is needed immediately to endorse, champion and uphold people’s fundamental personal rights.

Robust legal rights are a central plank in the war against abortion, not an optional extra.

They are an indispensable weapon which require urgent deployment in order to protect vulnerable people whose lives are hanging in the balance.

These are lives like Pippa Knight’s, and the countless unborn babies who face horrifying deaths under the dictates of Northern Ireland’s new CEDAW abortion framework.

Our God-given rights are being trampled on and threatened and SPUC desperately needs your support to put measures in place to stop this happening including:
1. Legal challenges in the courts 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 work to publicly expose the great British human rights “sham”.

We urgently need you behind us this year to put our plan into action.

Will you help us secure the “real” human rights unborn babies deserve?

Donate ([link removed])
I have been completely bowled over by the astonishing levels of generosity from SPUC supporters who have responded to my call for help, these past few days.

After a wonderful start to our spring email fundraiser, another £20,618 would see us hit our £50K target, settle up Pippa’s lawyer’s fees, and launch a new campaign to secure real human rights with real substance immediately.

One-off gifts of £10, £15 or £25 are immensely important.

Without them, SPUC would cease to function in any meaningful way.

Yes, they are that vital.

Donate ([link removed])
If you are in a position right now to make a commitment on a higher level, say £100, £500 or £1,000 or more, that would allow SPUC to invest more in our work, bringing about quicker results, and saving more lives.

Donate ([link removed])
Thank you so much for your loyal support and devotion to unborn children and other vulnerable people who are so lacking in legal protection today.

Yours in defence of life
P.S. It’s time to call out and reject the empty rhetoric and hype dressed up as human “rights” in the weak and ineffectual Human Rights Act and other laws.

The very weakest members of our country need our help and I urge you to join SPUC in bolstering the legal protections of the unborn and others, like Pippa Knight, who have nowhere to turn for protection.

Real human rights protection could end abortion at a stroke.

Donate ([link removed])

============================================================

Copyright © 2021 Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), All rights reserved.
You were added to this list either because you signed up online, asked to keep in touch after signing a petition, or gave your email address on a paper form.

Our mailing address is:
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
Unit B, 3 Whitacre Mews
Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB
United Kingdom
This email was sent to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
why did I get this? ([link removed]) unsubscribe from this list ([link removed]) update subscription preferences ([link removed])
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) . Unit B, 3 Whitacre Mews . Stannary Street . London, SE11 4AB . United Kingdom