Formation | January 1967 [1] |
---|---|
Founder | Phyllis Bowman [2] [3] |
Type | Anti-abortion lobby group |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Website | www |
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is an anti-abortion organisation in the United Kingdom which also opposes assisted suicide and abortifacient birth control. [4]
SPUC was formed in 1966 amid parliamentary debates over the Abortion Act, which came into law one year later. Although it is not officially faith-based, SPUC and the more conservative anti-abortion charity Life mainly draw upon Catholic and evangelical Protestant support. [5]
Between 2020 and 2022 the group received over £72,000 from US donors who used an agency to disguise their identity. [6]
SPUC founder Phyllis Bowman resigned from her post in July 1999, with nearly half of the 12-person national executive resigning in sympathy. This was believed to be because of a rift with SPUC national director John Smeaton over the organisation's strategies. [2]
The Pro-Life All-Party Parliamentary Group, headed by the then-Shadow Home Secretary, Ann Widdecombe, met with SPUC to discuss concerns that following Bowman's resignation, the organisation may divert resources from the political arena and seek greater realignment with the Catholic Church, alienating Protestant, Muslim and atheist supporters of SPUC. [2] [3]
SPUC opposed locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson's legal battle for a right to assisted death. [7] [8]
SPUC has opposed same-sex marriage. [9] [10] [11]
On 18 June 2019, the media reported that the organisation did a leaflet drop in Sneinton, Nottingham alongside a letter for parents asking for their child to be withdrawn from Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons. [12] This backfired as some residents in the area condemned the action and, in an interview on BBC Radio Nottingham, the leader of Nottingham City Council confirmed that no letters had been handed in at any school. [13]
Abortion in New Zealand is available within the framework of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, which entirely eliminated the criminal status of abortion and allows termination on request during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. After 20 weeks abortion is permitted only if a health practitioner deems it "clinically appropriate" and consults at least one other health practitioner. However, the law does not specify what the conditions are which constitute "clinically appropriate", and there are no criminal penalties. Abortion is illegal only if a person who is not a licensed health practitioner procures or performs it.
Abortion in Australia is legal. There are no federal abortion laws, and full decriminalisation of the procedure has been enacted in all jurisdictions. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: Surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy in most jurisdictions, and up to 16 weeks in Tasmania. Later-term abortions can be obtained with the approval of two doctors, although the Australian Capital Territory only requires a single physician's approval.
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide.
Sneinton is a suburb of Nottingham and former civil parish in the Nottingham district, in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England. The area is bounded by Nottingham city centre to the west, Bakersfield to the north, Colwick to the east, and the River Trent to the south. Sneinton lies within the unitary authority of Nottingham City, having been part of the borough of Nottingham since 1877.
The United Statesanti-abortion movement is a movement in the United States that opposes induced abortion and advocates for the protection of fetal life. Advocates support legal prohibition or restriction on ethical, moral, or religious grounds, arguing that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.
University College Dublin Students' Union is the students' union of University College Dublin. It is the largest students' union in Ireland.
Right to Life New Zealand is a nationwide but Christchurch-based anti-abortion group. It broke away from the New Zealand Society for Protection of the Unborn Child in 2000 following disagreements between the Christchurch branch spokesperson Ken Orr and the national leadership over lobbying tactics. Besides opposing abortion, Right to Life NZ opposes euthanasia, sex education, and specific policies around LGBT issues.
The Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (ALRANZ) is New Zealand's national abortion-rights advocacy group in existence since 1971. Since the decriminalisation of abortion in 2020, the organisation continues to monitor and lobby for changes to the law. The organisation is based in Wellington, publishes a quarterly newsletter, and has its own web site.
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.
Operation Rescue New Zealand was a short-lived New Zealand anti-abortion civil disobedience group (1988–1993), partly formed from Wellington and Christchurch "Pro-Life Action Groups". It was originally initiated by a group of four young men who first sought to "rescue" unborn children through prayer and non-violent means. The first New Zealand "rescue attempt" occurred outside Parkview Clinic in Wellington in October 1988, involving four men: Columban and Fintan Devine, Brendan and John Greally. Operation Rescue NZ later adopted much of its philosophy from Joseph Scheidler's Pro-Life Action League, more so from Joan Andrews-Bell's "Operation Rescue". It was formally established in different regions by well known abortion opponents Mary O'Neill (South), John Greally (Central) and Phil O'Connor (North), but only after a series of "rescues" involving the four mentioned above.
Constance Miriam Purdue was a New Zealand trade unionist. Formerly a communist and a Labour Party member, she later became a conservative Catholic and an anti-abortion activist.
Marilyn Valeria Pryor, DSG was a New Zealand conservative Catholic, and anti-abortion advocate who served on the Executive Council of Voice for Life, and served administrative roles for New Zealand's Thomas Stafford Williams. Since the 1990s she worked on, and in her latter years was the editor of, Wellington's Diocese Catholic Newspaper - WelCom. She held an admiration for Cardinal Joseph Bernadin.
John Fingland Mason is a Scottish independent politician who has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Shettleston since 2011. He was a member of the Scottish National Party until his expulsion in 2024.
John F. Larkin, is the former Attorney General for Northern Ireland.
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.
Family & Life is an Irish anti abortion organisation founded in 1996.
The Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) was an anti-abortion advocacy organisation established in Ireland in 1981. It campaigned in favour of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which was approved by referendum on 7 September 1983 and signed into law on the 7 October of the same year.
Scott Lloyd Benton is a former British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool South from the 2019 general election until his resignation in March 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was previously also a councillor on Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council and a primary school teacher.
Diana Manby Mason was a prominent New Zealand medical doctor and obstetrician also active in the anti-abortion movement during the 1970s.
Phyllis Joyce Bowman, DSG was a British journalist and anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia (pro-life) campaigner.
Our Society was founded in January 1967