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Today is Day 2 of SPUC’s Spring Fundraising Appeal.
In case you missed it, I am re-sending my email from yesterday.
It identifies the number one factor pushing abortions in the UK up to horrific new levels: DIY Home Abortion.
A robust response to DIY abortion is urgently needed to combat:
1. Highest abortion rates ever seen in the UK
2. Soaring hospitalisation in post-abortive women
3. An “abusers’ charter” - which is laying women and girls open to unprecedented levels of abortion coercion
Read on to learn more and see what action SPUC will be taking – funds permitting – to defend unborn babies and their mothers from the scourge of DIY abortion
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Dear Supporter,
The first part of 2022 has been a rollercoaster ride.
We have gone from welcoming the UK Government’s decision to scrap DIY abortion to seeing that decision voided with the “hijacking” of the Health and Care Bill by the abortion lobby at Westminster.
All in the space of 5 weeks.
A Baroness Sugg amendment tabled in the House of Lords passed quickly to the House of Commons where, on 30 March, MPs voted by 215 to 188 to make DIY abortion permanent.
The Health and Care Bill went from being new legislation to improve the health of a nation to one which suddenly sanctioned a death-by-mail scheme which will put the health of thousands of vulnerable women at grave risk.
What makes this development harder to take is that when the Covid crisis hit in March 2020, DIY abortion was sold to the public as a “temporary” emergency measure.
As one leading US pro-abortion advocate, Rahm Emanuel, famously said:
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
The abortion lobby always intended for DIY abortion at home to be the norm.
Their first step in this move was to push for “medical” abortions.
The drugs Mifepristone and Misoprostol are quick and easy to prescribe and cheaper than the surgical alternatives, like vacuum aspiration abortion.
- In 2020, 85% of all abortions in England and Wales and 97% carried out in Scotland, were medical abortions.
But now, DIY “medical abortion” – or more accurately, “chemical abortion” – is well on its way to becoming the most common abortion procedure practised in the UK.
Government figures released earlier this year show that DIY abortions accounted for almost half (47%) of all abortions in England and Wales during the period April to December 2020.
- Mifepristone (RU 486), the first pill to be taken, is intended to end the life of the unborn baby.
- Misoprostol, the second pill, is a drug used to induce labour. Its function is to expel the dead baby’s body accompanied by all the pains associated with childbirth.
How the scheme works
The grim process begins with a telephone call, where the drugs are prescribed and pills are posted out to the patient.
It is then up to the patient to make sure that she takes the pills correctly and that she is in a position to deal with their actions as they unfold.
Without dating scans to estimate gestational age, many women have to guess (and tend to underestimate) their baby’s gestation.
But abortion pills are less “effective” (i.e. less deadly) and more harmful to the woman when taken at later gestations.
Similarly, the timing between the two abortion pills is critical, and can cause a “failed drug-induced abortion” requiring surgical intervention.
Research has found that if medical supervision is absent, many patients take the two pills in too short a time frame.
Indeed, one study shows that 25-33% of women who took the second pill (Misoprostol) too soon “failed” to abort, requiring medical intervention.
Britain’s biggest abortion provider, BPAS, themselves warn about side effects, including:
“Significant, unavoidable or frequently occurring risks” like “nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, dizziness, fever/chills.”
BPAS also say that there is a 2-3% risk of “retaining products of conception”, with a risk of infection.
The more “serious complications” they describe include:
- Continuing pregnancy
- Haemorrhage
- Undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy
- Psychological problems
- Death
The aftermath
Even hardened abortion campaigners warn about what chemical abortion can entail.
Obstetrician Dr Peter Boylan admitted to “…very, very serious consequences for women” who haemorrhage (have blood loss) at home.
This is to say nothing of the psychological trauma of disposing of the body of a recognisable baby.
BPAS guidance chillingly states:
“You can decide how you wish to dispose of the pregnancy [sic] remains. They can be flushed down the lavatory or wrapped in tissue, placed in a small plastic bag and put in the dustbin.”
DIY ABORTION IS THE NUMBER 1 THREAT TO LIFE IN THE UK TODAY
1. It is PUSHING UP abortions
DIY abortion roll-out has coincided with record numbers of abortions:
- More unborn children were killed by abortion in Britain in 2020 (the year the pills-by-post scheme was introduced) than in any other year since the Abortion Act came into force in 1968
- The latest available Government figures show that 209,917 unborn children were killed in England and Wales by abortion in the year 2020
- The picture is similar in Scotland where the second-highest number of abortions (13,815) and the highest abortion rate were recorded in 2020.
2. It has led to soaring hospitalisations for post-abortive women
Studies drawing on freedom of information request data provided by NHS Trusts reveal that:
- 1-in-17 women who used the DIY abortion scheme in 2020 needed hospital treatment
- While emergency ambulance call-outs for complications arising from abortion pills were three times higher for women who took abortion pills at home compared to those who had taken them at an abortion facility.
And remember, one of the reasons used to justify DIY abortion was “protecting” the NHS from being overwhelmed.
3. DIY abortion policy is an abuser’s charter
The scheme’s virtual total reliance on “telemedicine” (virtual consultations with patients conducted by phone or zoom) is extremely problematic.
Telemedicine removes the safeguard of a face-to-face meeting with a doctor who could well spot signs of partner, employer or parent coercion and stop an abortion from taking place.
Researchers say that a staggering “1-in-4” abortions occur because of pressure from others.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute puts that figure even higher:
- “… some 30% of women have an abortion because someone else, not the woman, wants it.”
While the UK post-abortion counselling service Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH) – a sister organisation of SPUC – found that:
- “… typically, 75% of the women who summon up the courage to make a call for help regarding an abortion were pressurised or bullied into having one."
(Given that ARCH’s incoming calls have increased by 600% since 2020, we can only imagine how many abusers of women the DIY abortion policy has facilitated.)
NEW ABORTION COERCION AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Abortion is the “elephant in the room” that our opponents want to go away – but SPUC isn’t going to let that happen.
Our senior management team are putting the finishing touches on a major new campaign which aims to explode the lie that abortion is about a woman’s right to “choose”.
The campaign aims to change the thinking of politicians, journalists, educationalists, religious leaders and healthcare professionals.
My simple vision for SPUC is to make abortion in the UK “unthinkable”.
I believe that the best way to do that is to bring the FACTS about abortion to people who are in a position to change hearts and minds in their own particular sphere of influence, one step at a time.
The campaign has three key components:
1. EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH
We want to reach age groups which are most likely to experience abortion coercion BEFORE they encounter it in their lives.
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We have already developed a special coercion workshop (using professional actors) which is touring UK schools, colleges and universities.
In addition, we are planning a new school talk and other resources to align with National Curriculum requirements thus enabling open classroom discussion.
Estimated cost = £20,000
2. UK-WIDE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN
Billboard advertising has proven to be extremely effective at raising public awareness.
SPUC billboards were used to good effect in Belfast in 2020 to publicise our Repeal Section 9 Campaign, which opposed the extreme abortion regime imposed on Northern Ireland by Westminster.
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Budget permitting, we will employ this type of high-visibility, high-impact advertising, warning women about abortion coercion in town and city centres throughout the UK.
We also have plans to produce a series of professionally shot videos and to turn those videos into powerful social media content to help raise awareness of abortion coercion online.
Estimated cost = £45,000
3. LEGAL ACTION
SPUC has a proud tradition of providing legal support to pro-life people facing pressure at work to participate in abortion.
Pictured below are former senior Glasgow midwives, Mary Doogan (l) and Connie Woods (r) at the Supreme Court in London prior to their landmark conscientious objection case in 2014.
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We would like to extend that support to include women experiencing pressure from employers to abort their babies.
Women in the workplace are falling foul of tacit (and not so tacit) pressure from unscrupulous bosses “not to get pregnant” for the sake of the business or organisation.
SPUC is willing to test employment law and take a legal case to defend a victim of coercion, or press for compensation for wrongdoing in the workplace.
Estimated cost = £80,000
Planning, preparing and executing campaigns of this magnitude is not cheap.
The campaign will entail substantial advertising costs. It will involve hiring professional expertise to train and advise staff and volunteers.
The cost of our ongoing legal challenge in Northern Ireland must be met too, where SPUC has gone to court to stop the UK Government from imposing an extreme abortion framework on the Province.
I have just been handed an estimate from our lawyers indicating that £82,000 must be found to cover SPUC’s legal bill for the Belfast Court of Appeal later this year.
If you are in a position to do so, will you give £20 today to help end DIY abortion in the UK?
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A one-off gift at whatever level you can afford today will enable SPUC’s management team to sanction the crucial educational, campaigning and legal programmes that I have outlined for you today which are so critical for raising awareness of abortion coercion in the UK.
Who knows, it could be your personal contribution to the campaign which saves a precious baby’s life and spares its mother the terrible anguish of going through with an abortion.
A monthly donation by Direct Debit of £5, £10 or £25 a month is another excellent way to help this happen.
Of course, with larger gifts of £100, £500 and £1,000, more can be done to defend babies, and help to achieve SPUC’s vision of a Britain where abortion is “unthinkable” more quickly.
Yours sincerely,
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John Deighan
Chief Executive
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P.S. I hope that you can see how SPUC’s Coercion Awareness Campaign will help save lives, and move us a step closer to our ultimate goal of making abortion “unthinkable”.
Of course, wherever they take place, abortions are equally destructive.
But the numbers involved in DIY abortion are truly shocking. The harm done to women is staggering.
And the gulf in financial resources between the abortion industry and the pro-life movement is enormous.
Without the generosity of loyal rank and file, like you, SPUC really is powerless to act.
How much funding this month’s appeal generates will directly affect the campaign’s capacity to get on board the politicians, medical professionals, and media figures whose support is vital to ending abortion in the UK.
The more money we can raise, the more can be done to change the hearts and minds of these key influencers and bring us a step closer to ending these repugnant DIY abortion schemes.
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