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New Year Fundraising Appeal - Day 3
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In case you missed it, I am re-sending my email from Wednesday. It documents ferocious attempts by our opponents to "cancel" pro-life students and speakers on UK campuses.
1. In a bid to silence peaceful pro-life students whose only "crime" is to calmly exercise their right to free speech, our opponents are resorting to intimidation, physical attacks and even death threats.
2. The Higher Education (Free Speech) Bill promises to guarantee pro-life speech on campuses.
3. But the Labour Party + the higher education establishment are opposing it.
Read on to find out what SPUC is doing to ensure that the Bill is not hijacked by our opponents and how you can help to give unborn babies a voice on UK campuses...
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Dear Supporter,
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill could be very good news indeed for unborn children.
When the law offers the pro-life side protection to transmit the truth, we move a step closer to ending the killing.
But when pro-life access to platforms is removed - also known as “no-platforming” – the facts about the UK’s massive abortion death toll and the considerable harm being done to women by abortion are hidden.
The Free Speech Bill, then, could certainly allow the pro-life movement to make its mark on the political landscape and save unborn babies.
Under the proposed legislation, higher education providers and student unions will have a duty to “actively promote” freedom of speech.
The Bill would make it a criminal offence to deny any group or individual access to a higher education platform on the basis of their ideas, belief, or views – at least without any specification or qualification.”
Should a case of “no-platforming” take place, those prevented from speaking could seek compensation.
The Bill’s provisions include giving the Office for Students powers to levy fines on infringing institutions and establishing an ombudsman or "free speech champion" charged with monitoring cases of no-platforming and academic dismissals.
In short, the Bill’s measures are intended to protect academic staff, students, and visitors who advocate unwelcome viewpoints. Examples could include opposition to compulsory vaccinations, LGBT rights, or abortion.
Being pro-life on campus is now considered “extremist”
In the 1990s and 2000s, no-platforming efforts focused on the far-right British National Party (BNP) as well as Islamist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose stated aim is to implement Sharia law globally.
Today though, it’s pro-lifers who are finding themselves firmly in the sights of the campus censors.
A joint SPUC/Alliance of Pro-Life Students survey carried out last year found that:
- 70% of respondents felt that they were unable to share their pro-life opinions while at university, whether with fellow students or in lectures or seminars
- 50% said they had been threatened, abused, alarmed or distressed – through actions or words – by another student or academic because of their membership with pro-life groups.
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Two prominent attacks on pro-life student groups have taken place at major UK universities in recent months.
- Pro-abortion students ransacked a pro-life stall at Oxford University’s Freshers’ Fair.
The Oxford Student Union has so far failed to condemn the attack, but instead commented that it understood “the emotive responses and frustrations towards the presence of an anti-abortion stall".
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October 2021: group of students fighting over a black bin, which contained the contents of the Oxford Students For Life stall.
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- Pro-life society members at the University of Exeter received death threats and a petition was started by opponents demanding that the pro-life group be disbanded.
Their petition, with over 9,200 signatures on change.org, is seeking to have the Exeter pro-life group “cancelled”.
One individual enraged by pro-life speech said online:
“Fav place in Exeter gonna be the BOTTOM of the quay if u int careful [sic].”
While another instructed:
“Someone beat him up”
– a comment directed at a male member of the Exeter pro-life group.
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The petition - mentioned above - demanding that Exeter Students for Life be disbanded.
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Under the Free Speech Bill, pro-life students who believe that their freedom to speak about abortion has been impinged could seek financial compensation.
However, the Bill may not go as far as we would wish.
Someone seeking to make a claim against a student union or university would still need to demonstrate that any breach of duty had caused them legally significant loss, and at least one legal expert has expressed scepticism that this would "easily translate into successful litigation in most cases”.
Nevertheless, the Bill is a welcome development and one which could help to ensure that students receive more opportunities to hear the truth about abortion on UK campuses.
But the higher education sector and Labour want the Bill blocked
Decades ago, higher education institutions firmly established themselves as breeding grounds for the spread of anti-life, anti-family political sentiment.
They have enjoyed a monopoly on what views are heard on campuses ever since and they aren’t about to relinquish their stranglehold on the minds of young men and women – even at the fringes – anytime soon, without a fight.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the sector is railing against the passage of the Freedom of Speech Bill.
The Russell Group – a group of twenty-four prestigious public research universities in the United Kingdom - as well as Universities UK, a lobby group for British universities, stated that the Bill should be "proportionate" and avoid creating unnecessary bureaucracy, infringing university autonomy, or duplicating existing laws.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), a trade union for higher education staff with a large membership of around 130,000, describes the bill – very oddly, it must be said – as "a serious threat to freedom of speech and academic freedom", and argued that the government had "over-exaggerated" the issues motivating the Bill.
UCU supports campaigns:
- "… to defend and extend women's rights and access to safe, legal abortion".
- And among its statements, it opposes the criminalisation of sex-selective abortion.
It is not difficult to see, then, why it would oppose a law that affords a voice for the rights of the unborn on campus.
Meanwhile, the House of Commons voted by 367 to 216 in May to reject a Labour amendment that sought to deny the Bill a second reading, indicating that it still faces significant opposition in Parliament.
The Labour Party absurdly claims that the Bill amounts to nothing more than “legal protection for hate speech”. The shadow education secretary, Kate Green, told MPs there was no so-called free speech crisis in universities that necessitated the proposed legislation.
At the 2019 General Election, the Labour Party also pledged to completely “decriminalise” abortion.
That would have scrapped the current 24-week time limit, making abortion available on-demand, for any reason, up to birth.
Labour even makes special financial help available to female members of the party to become MPs – on the condition that they support abortion.
Emily’s List UK – EMILY is an acronym for “Early Money is Like Yeast”. The idea behind Emily’s List is to elect more MPs to Parliament who will back the killing of unborn babies.
Its website states:
“Any woman member of the Labour Party who is seeking selection as a candidate for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the European Parliament and Westminster… [may apply, but applicants must] … support the programme and values of the Party and be pro-choice.”
Again, it is clear why Labour is so keen to have the case for unborn children silenced on UK campuses.
The Free Speech Bill is currently at its Report Stage where MPs can suggest changes or add new parts that they think should be included in the Bill.
So, the abortion lobby has one final chance to materially alter the Bill.
A real danger exists that could see pro-lifers being added to a list who will be refused rights by the Bill.
Could I ask your help to promote a new petition to stop that from happening?
SPUC has launched a Pro-Life Speech PETITION to counter the one set up by the pro-abortion activists at Exeter University (above).
Our petition urges the Government to ensure that pro-life students receive equal protection at a time when the risk of pro-abortion changes or amendments being added to the Bill is at its highest.
Whether praying at an abortion clinic or manning a stall at a Freshers’ Fair, we must protect these brave ambassadors who are standing up publicly for our babies.
To ensure this happens, and that the Government takes the plight of pro-lifers on campuses seriously, the petition must be widely promoted – on and offline – to obtain the large number of signatures that will be needed for the Government to take notice.
This will entail a sizeable expansion in SPUC’s marketing budget.
- Advertising will be needed to promote the petition on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram and on SPUC’s website. Estimated cost: £10,000.
We also have plans to promote the Pro-Life Speech Petition at public meetings, at churches and other venues across the UK.
This work will be carried out by SPUC’s recently expanded grassroots development team as part of our new Pro-life Life Missions project.
- Again, advertising will be needed both online and in the religious press to ensure that the petition is spread far and wide. Estimated cost: £10,000.
Will you back our Pro-Life Speech Campaign and other vital pro-life work in 2022?
Pro-life censorship is not the only danger threatening our babies and placing a drain on SPUC’s already stretched budget so soon in the new year.
DIY abortions have coincided with a huge upsurge in abortions since their introduction as an “emergency” measure with the onset of Covid.
SPUC believes that an over-reliance on “telemedicine” consultations is opening up more women and girls to be coerced into abortion against their will by boyfriends, parents, friends, etc., and that this is a key contributory factor in the rise of abortions that we are now witnessing.
This year, SPUC will be launching a major new campaign to highlight the problem of abortion coercion. [Look out for my special email about this later this week to find out more].
It will involve commissioning top-level academic research and providing personal testimonies of women and girls who say they only aborted their child because someone pressured them. Expected cost of coercion campaign: £81,000.
Unlike the UK’s main abortion providers, who are ending the lives of more than 500 unborn babies every day, SPUC does not get tax benefits. These main abortion providers get additional funds to allow them to expand their work of ending the lives of babies in the womb.
That’s another reason why this month’s fundraising appeal is so vital.
And that’s why I would ask you to consider making a special contribution today to back SPUC’s work to protect our babies in 2022 with a gift of £10, £25 or £50.
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Larger offerings of £100, £250, £500 or £1,000 and higher will of course ensure that more can be done to protect our babies. More investment in pro-life campaigns, projects and educational programmes will help end abortion sooner.
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Pledging a regular monthly gift of £10 or £15 or £50 – or increasing your existing gift by a few pounds – is another effective way that you can support SPUC’s mission.
Just as a regular monthly income is crucial for running family budgets efficiently, so it is the case with SPUC.
And when your opponents – including the UK Government, the NHS, BPAS and Marie Stopes – are ploughing billions into destroying unborn lives, a set income makes the plans we have to combat them in 2022 considerably more assured.
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Thank you for ALL that you have done, and are doing, to protect and uphold the dignity of human life in the United Kingdom.
Yours in defence of life
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John Deighan
Chief Executive Officer
PS – I have asked SPUC’s fundraising team to launch a New Year appeal to raise £101,000 over the next 8 days.
With any online appeal the first few days are crucial.
Will you consider making a donation TODAY to ensure that we get off to a good start?
The donations we receive in January set us up for the rest of the year.
They ensure that the critical work that SPUC is doing in schools, in the media and at the various parliaments and assemblies throughout the UK never has to stop.
The size of your gift for the unborn isn’t what is important. A pound here and a pound there soon adds up!
Rather, it’s your involvement which is the vital thing. Without it we cannot make those small but important steps on the road to making abortion unthinkable.
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