Type | Anti-abortion advocacy |
---|---|
Headquarters | Belfast |
Website | bothlivesmatter |
Both Lives Matter is an advocacy organisation in Northern Ireland which claims to advocate for both the lives of the woman and the unborn child in every pregnancy. Its stated aims are to "re-frame the abortion debate in Northern Ireland and beyond, to advocate for better care in pregnancy crisis, to create a life-affirming culture that values each woman and her unborn child and to safe-guard the current law which protects both women and unborn children". [1] The organisation was established in 2017[ citation needed ] and co-founded by Dawn McAvoy. [2] It was originally a collaborative movement co-founded by three organisations, but is now an initiative within the Evangelical Alliance UK operating under the shortened name Both Lives. In continuty with Both Lives Matter, the logo of Both Lives describes it as both "pro-women" and "pro-lfe".
Both Lives Matter conducted a billboard campaign in two locations in Northern Ireland in January 2017 featuring the headline: "100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion. Why change that?". [3] This refers to abortions not performed due to Northern Ireland's exclusion from the Abortion Act, passed in 1967. [2] In response to the placement of the billboards, 14 complaints were being lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority, which were dismissed on the grounds that while the claim was an "estimate", "On balance, we concluded that the evidence indicated that there was a reasonable probability that around 100,000 people were alive in Northern Ireland today who would have otherwise been aborted had it been legal to do so". [3] [4]
The '100,000' billboard campaign won the Northern Ireland Public Affairs Campaign of the Year for 2017, awarded by the Public Relations and Communications Association. [5] [6] It was the only campaign in the running for the award. [7]
The group has been criticised for "hijacking Black Lives Matter"; [7] [8] in The Guardian , Elizabeth Nelson of the Belfast Feminist Network described it as "a cynical attempt to spin the language of human rights into froth to hide their true agenda – the subjugation of women." [9]
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Abortion in the United Kingdom is de facto available under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967 in Great Britain and the Abortion (No.2) Regulations 2020 in Northern Ireland. The procurement of an abortion remains a criminal offence in Great Britain under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, although the Abortion Act provides a legal defence for both the pregnant woman and her doctor in certain cases. Although a number of abortions did take place before the 1967 Act, there have been around 10 million abortions in the United Kingdom. Around 200,000 abortions are carried out in England and Wales each year and just under 14,000 in Scotland; the most common reason cited under the ICD-10 classification system for around 98% of all abortions is "risk to woman's mental health."
Abortion in Ireland is regulated by the Health Act 2018. Abortion is permitted in Ireland during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and later in cases where the pregnant woman's life or health is at risk, or in the cases of a fatal foetal abnormality. Abortion services commenced on 1 January 2019, following its legalisation by the aforementioned Act, which became law on 20 December 2018. Previously, the 8th Constitutional Amendment had given the life of the unborn foetus the same value as that of its mother, but the 36th constitutional amendment, approved by referendum in May 2018, replaced this with a clause permitting the Oireachtas (parliament) to legislate for the termination of pregnancies.
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights. It seeks to act as a representative body for non-religious people in the UK.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1983 was an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which inserted a subsection recognising "the equal right to life of the pregnant woman and the unborn". Abortion had been subject to criminal penalty in Ireland since at least 1861; the amendment ensured that legislation or judicial interpretation would be restricted to allowing abortion in circumstances where the life of a pregnant woman was at risk. It was approved by referendum on 7 September 1983 and signed into law on 7 October 1983. In 2018, it was repealed by referendum.
In Ireland, the state retains laws that allow for censorship, including specific laws covering films, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, as well as terrorism and pornography, among others. In the early years of the state, censorship was more widely enforced, particularly in areas that were perceived to be in contradiction of Catholic dogma, including abortion, sexuality and homosexuality. The church had banned many books and theories for centuries, listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
A crisis pregnancy center (CPC), sometimes called a pregnancy resource center (PRC) or a pro-life pregnancy center, is a type of nonprofit organization established by anti-abortion groups primarily to persuade pregnant women not to have an abortion. In the United States, CPCs that qualify as medical clinics may also provide pregnancy testing, sonograms, and other services, while many others operate without medical licensing under varying degrees of regulation.
Voice for Life, formerly known as the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC), is a New Zealand anti-abortion advocacy group. It has also lobbied against infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, cloning and euthanasia. In recent years, it has strongly campaigned against the decriminalisation of euthanasia in New Zealand as well as abortion, but was unsuccessful in preventing the decriminalisation of either in 2020.
40 Days for Life is an international organization that campaigns against abortion in more than 60 nations worldwide. It was originally started in 2004 by members of the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life in Texas. The name refers to a repeated pattern of events lasting for 40 days in the Bible, such as Noah’s Ark, Moses’s 40 days on Mount Sinai, and Jesus’s 40 days in the desert.
A, B and C v Ireland is a landmark 2010 case of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to privacy under Article 8. The court rejected the argument that article 8 conferred a right to abortion, but found that Ireland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to provide an accessible and effective procedure by which a woman can have established whether she qualifies for a legal abortion under current Irish law.
Pro Life Campaign (PLC) is an Irish anti-abortion advocacy organisation. Its primary spokesperson is Cora Sherlock. It is a non-denominational organisation which promotes anti-abortion views, and opposes abortion in all circumstances, including cases of rape and incest.
Youth Defence is an Irish organisation that opposes legalisation of abortion. It was founded in 1986, lay dormant, and was reformed in 1992 following the X Case ruling. It shared offices with the Eurosceptic group Cóir, but is not openly aligned to any specific political party. It is linked to neo-fascist organisations in Italy, Germany and Great Britain.
Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pregnancy without fear of legal or social backlash. These movements are in direct opposition to anti-abortion movements.
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionistmovements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the legalization of elective abortions.
Family & Life is an Irish anti abortion organisation founded in 1996.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was an Act of the Oireachtas which, until 2018, defined the circumstances and processes within which abortion in Ireland could be legally performed. The act gave effect in statutory law to the terms of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1992 judgment Attorney General v. X. That judgment allowed for abortion where pregnancy endangers a woman's life, including through a risk of suicide. The provisions relating to suicide had been the most contentious part of the bill. Having passed both Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2013, it was signed into law on 30 July by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, and commenced on 1 January 2014. The 2013 Act was repealed by the Health Act 2018, which commenced on 1 January 2019.
James Dowson is a British far-right political activist, Christian nationalist and Ulster loyalist, active in Northern Ireland.
The Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) is an Irish abortion rights group. The group's goal is the introduction of free and legal abortion in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Prior to May 2018, the group campaigned for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which was achieved with the passing of the Thirty-Sixth Amendment 2018. The ARC also campaigns for the Northern Ireland Assembly on behalf of abortion legislation and "to ensure the health of women in pregnancy is protected in line with international human rights standards".
The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which permits the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. The constitution had previously prohibited abortion unless there was a serious risk to the life of the mother.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa is an American anti-abortion activist. She is the founder of the anti-abortion organization New Wave Feminists. She is also a frequent op-ed contributor for The Dallas Morning News.