Dear Supporter,
A recent BBC poll found that 15% of all women had experienced pressure or coercion to have an abortion that they did not want. Not 15% of women who had had abortions, 15% of ALL women.
This data is shocking – and shows that coercion in abortion decisions is an urgent and immediate threat to women’s health and wellbeing, and is an often unrecognised form of domestic abuse.
As you know, highlighting the insidious problem of abortion coercion is one of SPUC’s current major campaign concerns. Already, thousands of copies of our new door-to-door flyer have been ordered by supporters eager to share this message in their community.
As well as raising public awareness of this form of abuse, we want to see real change. That is why we are launching a petition, calling on the Health Secretary to urgently commission research into the area of abortion coercion, and in so doing recognise coerced abortion as a priority for health and social policy moving forward.
There have already been attacks on our coercion campaign in the media. In an article by Vice News, a spokeswoman for Humanists UK accused SPUC of “disingenuously trying to link their agenda to the very real problems of sexual coercion, abuse, and trafficking”. The article’s author further accused us of “falsely inflating” the issue of abortion coercion. I think that this attack is very telling. The other side don’t want abortion coercion talked about – because it doesn’t suit the pervasive narrative of choice. We, however, are determined to speak out on behalf of the women who are damaged by this very real issue. It is precisely because of our “agenda” – that every human life is precious and should be protected – that we know how devastating it is for a woman to go through an abortion she didn’t want.
The first step in combatting abortion coercion is for proper research to be conducted, and for it to be recognised as an urgent health priority.
What can I do?
Please sign this petition (link below), and get your family and friends to as well.
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You can share the petition online here https://www.spuc.org.uk/coercion . However, we also need people getting out into their communities to collect paper signatures.
Please, if you can, collect signatures at your church or community group. You can order copies of the paper petition online, or by calling the London office. You can also order our striking new poster, to publicise the petition. It can be used to encourage those in your pro-life group, parish or community to take this important action.
The deadline for this petition is 19 August. We plan to present it at the beginning of the new Parliamentary session.
Thank you for campaigning with us to protect women and babies.
Kind regards,
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Alithea Williams
Public Policy Manager
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