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Spring Fundraising Campaign - Day 5
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Dear Supporter,
We have a problem.
Whether labelled misinformation, hate speech or fake news by so-called “Fact-Checkers”, the abortion lobby – supported by the big tech platforms - want the pro-life message silenced.
The thing is the pro-life movement needs access to the media and public spaces to end abortion.
However, access to these areas is being impeded in a number of ways:
1. The truth about abortion is being increasingly suppressed ONLINE
Earlier this month, Twitter locked the account of LifeNews and threatened to ban it permanently after posting an image of an aborted baby.
These images were shocking.
(The reality of abortion is a horrible thing to see)
Twitter said the post “may negatively impact an individual’s wellbeing ”.
Yet Twitter guidelines state that:
“… very limited exceptions may be made for gory media associated with newsworthy events.”
and that
“… graphic violence [may be shared] provided that you mark this media as sensitive”, which LifeNews say they did.
The image is said to have been of 1 of 5 babies killed at a Washington D.C. abortion facility.
It has been alleged that at least one baby was killed in an illegal partial-birth abortion, while some others may have been killed after they were born, in violation of federal law.
If ever there was a case of a “newsworthy event”, this was it.
LifeNews Editor, Steve Ertelt, said:
“Liberal accounts harass and spam us every day, but when we report their harassment and threats of violence to Twitter it takes no action against them most of the time.”
Twitter’s censorship is not restricted to pro-life organisations, though.
Individuals on the platform who express pro-life opinions are receiving the same treatment.
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Suppression of traditional viewpoints online is emboldening abortion extremists to take their opposition to another level altogether.
2. Violence, intimidation and death threats
A joint survey conducted by SPUC and the Alliance of Pro-Life Students found that:
- 50% of pro-life students said they had been threatened, abused, alarmed or distressed – through actions or the words – by another student or academic
Last autumn pro-abortion students ransacked a pro-life stall at Oxford University’s Freshers’ Fair.
The Oxford Student Union actually expressed sympathy with the attackers.
At the University of Exeter, members of the pro-life society received death threats from opponents who launched a petition demanding the society’s disbandment.
One pro-abortion individual sent Exeter pro-life students this threat:
“Fav place in Exeter gonna be the BOTTOM of the quay if u int careful.”
While another called for a male pro-life student to be physically attacked, demanding that:
“Someone beat him up.”
These campus attacks are not one-offs
- In 2018, Birmingham Students for Life group was blocked from being recognised by the university’s Student Union.
- In 2019, Nottingham Students for Life group was denied access to the Student’s Union. It was only after threat of legal action that they were granted access a month later.
- In 2019, the Bristol University Pro-Life Feminist Society met with a protest which saw the car park vandalised during the course of a speaker’s talk.
- In 2019, an event hosted by Durham University Students for Life was refused association with the Durham Student’s Union. More than 150 protesters verbally accosted attendees as they left the event.
Sadly, over the years numerous SPUC supporters taking part in public displays of witness for the unborn have ended up as victims of physical assaults too.
3. Peaceful pro-life vigils are now a prime target for the censors
Our opponents are unhappy that pavement counsellors are offering women booked in for abortions a true “choice” at the eleventh hour to help them keep their babies.
When pro-life people take up public “space”, our opponents know they will be exposed.
The 40 Days for Life programme is a wonderful example of this.
The group, which operates internationally – including in the UK – estimates that its vigils have saved 20,786 lives worldwide since 2007.
Last year, 118 UK unborn babies were saved from abortion in “turn arounds” at 40 Days for Life vigils.
But if a blanket censorship law is applied to pro-life groups, their great work here in the UK will be ended.
Already, several UK councils have banned pro-life vigils.
And last month, The Northern Ireland Assembly voted by 55 to 29 to impose a ban on them.
SPUC’s “pro-life chains” are another example of a nationwide public witness for the unborn which our opponents would love to see shut down.
On Saturday, I joined pro-life supporters in Edinburgh city centre who'd gathered to commemorate the 9.8 million unborn victims of the Abortion Act.
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The question I ask myself is, will it be legal to do so again in 2023?
SPUC is very concerned that the pro-abortion lobby will attempt to hijack the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill currently before Parliament.
(Last month it managed to do just that when an amendment to the Health and Care Bill tabled by Baroness Sugg in the House of Lords was introduced to the Commons at short notice and a vote there saw DIY abortion in the UK shamefully re-established).
Not all forms of free speech are recognised and protected by the Bill, however.
It is expected that the Bill will include a clause preventing denial of the Holocaust and there is a danger that our opponents will attempt to introduce a similar “ban” on public criticism of abortion and the “right to choose”.
Pro-abortion organisations with real sway, like the University and College Union and the Russell Group of UK universities, are among the Bill’s most outspoken critics.
Likewise, heavyweight bodies like the UK Human Rights Commission could also apply strong lobbying pressure to the Government.
The Commission’s Northern Ireland offshoot has intervened in past SPUC legal cases opposing the right to life of the unborn and it is the driving force behind the United Nations CEDAW “recommendations” which helped pave the way for the ban on pro-life counselling in the Province last month.
We must go on the offensive.
SPUC ran a successful campaign in 2018 to prevent a national ban on pro-life vigils being imposed across the UK.
We must be ready to do so once again.
But frankly, I will need your financial support to do so.
The censorship threat comes as SPUC is on the cusp of launching its most ambitious public awareness campaign to date - alerting women to the dangers of abortion coercion (especially with DIY abortion, which is also dramatically pushing up abortion numbers).
Today is the halfway point in our Spring Fundraising Campaign
With only 5 more days to run, SPUC supporters have raised an astonishing £33,845.
Your generosity is quite something, and I would like to personally thank every single supporter who has responded.
SPUC’s finance director has set a target of £145K for our Spring appeal.
This is how much we estimate that it will cost to put in play the educational, public advertising and legal defence aspects of the abortion Coercion Awareness Campaign.
Roughly £112,000 is still needed to hit our Spring appeal target.
We project that £85,000 of that will come from SPUC’s May postal appeal, leaving another £26,155 to raise from this email fundraising campaign by next Wednesday.
Will you give £20 today so that SPUC can wage an effective campaign to protect pro-life speech, unborn babies and their mothers?
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THANK YOU.
Yours in defence of life
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John Deighan
Chief Executive
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