NATIONAL NEWS by Andrew Halloway

PRO-LIFERS AND PRO-ABORTIONISTS COMPETE FOR NEW LEGISLATION

Contradictory rulings on abortion have been proposed as amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill, due to be debated on or after 3 June (as we went to press).

Caroline Ansell MP’s amendment would lower the abortion time limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks; another, by Liam Fox MP, aims to stop Down’s babies being aborted right up to birth by aligning the abortion time limit for Down’s Syndrome with the standard abortion limit.

Another pro-life amendment by Flick Drummond MP would ensure women have an in-person consultation with a medical professional before taking abortion pills at home.

The amendment has been signed by a cross-party group of 46 MPs including former Deputy PMs Thérèse Coffey and Damian Green, former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, former leader of the Conservative Party and cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, and Labour MP Rachael Maskell.

On the other hand, MPs Stella Creasy and Diana Johnson propose two radically liberalising pro-abortion amendments. One would allow abortion up to birth for any reason and the other that abortion should be available on demand, for any reason, up to 24 weeks.

According to Right to Life, legalising abortion up to birth may lead to women performing late-term abortions at home – endangering the lives of many more women, and would cause the loss of many more healthy and viable babies. One of the pro-abortion amendments would even result in sex-selective abortion being legal in England and Wales.

“Creasy’s amendment would remove key deterrents against hiding the body of a dead baby”

Right to Life also say that infanticide would be easier to cover up, because “Stella Creasy’s amendment would remove key deterrents against hiding the body of a dead baby, which are included in Section 60 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.”

While traumatic birth experiences have featured in the news recently, the EA’s head of policy, Alicia Edmund, says that opting for more abortions “recklessly ignores the current failings of UK maternity care….The priority should be radical reform so that both mother and her unborn child receive the best support.”

39,000 women need hospital treatment after DIY abortions

The number of failed or incomplete home abortions has been conservatively calculated at 39,000 over five years.

Lifenews.com reports that in just England and Wales, at least 39,000 women have been treated at NHS hospitals for complications arising from failed or incomplete DIY medical abortions at home, and every day 30 women suffer health risks from DIY abortion.

In December 2018, the Government allowed women to self-administer the second part of a medical abortion, misoprostol, at home. In March 2020, due to Covid-19 lockdowns, the Secretary of State extended this to include both stages of abortion, using mifepristone and misoprostol.

The most recent official data only covers the first six months of 2022, but from that data it was possible to estimate the 39,000 figure, and the official statistics for that six-month period show an increase in abortions of 17 per cent compared to the previous year.

Life News adds: “This sharp increase continued throughout the second half of 2022, and into 2023” and “written evidence to Parliament… reported a 32 per cent increase in the first period of 2023…

“They are abandoning women”

“The independent abortion providers, BPAS, MSI-RC et al, are celebrating this new way of doing abortion (telemedicine and pills-by-post) as a leap forward in women’s healthcare, but in practice they are abandoning women” who are “left to manage their abortion alone at home and when it goes wrong, as it does for one in 17”.

Screaming pro-abortion mob threaten young pro-life speaker

Police were forced to provide physical protection for a pro-life speaker at the University of Manchester when a mob of pro-abortion protesters tried to shut down her talk.

Madeline Page, CEO of the Alliance of Pro-life Students (APS), delivered a talk titled ‘Grill the pro-lifer’, but only after police led her through the screaming crowd to get into the venue.

Afterwards, she had to stay in a different location because it was not safe to go to her accommodation, and the next day she was accosted by a pro-abortion student who shouted at her outside a university building.

“I was swarmed by students hurling vile abuse”

Madeline told Right to Life UK: “There had been a concerted hate campaign about me before I had even arrived at the university… The talk was scheduled for 7pm but the university had organised for the building to be cleared and staff advised to vacate the building two hours beforehand for their safety.

“By the time I arrived, there was already a group of protesters shouting and chanting.”

As soon as they saw Madeline, they swore at her with vile language. The police had to force the protestors to let her inside the building.

Madeline adds: “When we left the event… I was separated from the rest of the group and swarmed by students hurling verbal abuse. The police had to form a physical barrier between the mob and me for my protection.”

This occasion on 12 April was the second time this year that Manchester pro-life students have faced physical intimidation for speaking about their beliefs.

The government passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act in 2023 to alleviate censorship on campuses after a string of student bodies at universities including Aberdeen, Glasgow, Nottingham and Strathclyde all tried to prevent student pro-life groups from being affiliated with their university.

A video of the protest can be seen at: www.youtube.com/shorts/Ly7cnhOd4iY

Top evangelist leaves Church of England

Nationally-known evangelist Rico Tice has resigned from the Church of England due to its increasing acceptance of same-sex relationships.

“A Church that no longer affirms biblical orthodoxy”

Tice says he had to “demonstrate some clear separation from a Church that no longer affirms biblical orthodoxy”. Back in 2018, he quit the Archbishop of Canterbury and York’s task group on evangelism because others on the committee were supportive of same-sex relationships.

Tice, who co-wrote the Christianity Explored seekers’ course and was a long-time minister at All Souls Langham Place in London, now attends the International Presbyterian Church in Ealing.

He told Evangelicals Now that the tipping point was the Anglican Church’s new Prayers of Love and Faith. He said he wrote to “Justin Welby and all the bishops” about “the Church’s onward trajectory toward affirming same-sex marriage” but “received no substantive response from him, and that was a key moment in my decision to leave.”

Priest backs primary school ‘gay champions’

An Episcopalian rector is supporting Scottish primary schools in encouraging children to promote homosexuality and transgenderism, according to Christian Voice.

Children as young as four are being recruited to act as ‘LGBT Champions’ by taxpayer-supported LGBT Youth Scotland, one of whose trustees is the Reverend Canon Dean Fostekew, Rector of the Episcopalian Church of the Good Shepherd in Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

The Telegraph claims that LGBT Youth Scotland is asking those schools that have signed up to its tenets to form ‘gender and sexual orientation alliance groups’ among pupils, install gender neutral toilets and mark a Transgender Day of Remembrance that promotes transgender propaganda – all without the knowledge or consent of parents.

A four-year strategy to indoctrinate young people

LGBTQ Youth Scotland has a four-year strategy to indoctrinate young people in Scotland and, according to CitizenGo, the group is linked to scandals of ‘child grooming’ and ‘sexual exploitation’.

CitizenGo says: “Pupils are being asked if they are ‘gay,’ ‘lesbian’ or ‘trans’ and children as young as four are being appointed ‘LGBT champions’… This isn’t education; it’s indoctrination.” They added: “Schools are meant to educate and protect children, instead, they are making them more vulnerable to abuse, sexualising them, and exposing them to harmful ideologies.”

This is continuing even though the ground-breaking Dame Hilary Cass Review has warned of the dangers of ‘social transition’ and advised against puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children.

New Scots leader “does God”

Scotland’s new First Minister, John Swinney, is unashamed to be called a Christian, according to a report on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Sunday’ programme, which recalled doctor Alistair Campbell’s famous statement: “We don’t do God”.

Christian politicians such as former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron and even, more recently, Swinney’s collleague, MSP Kate Forbes, have been hounded for their biblical beliefs.

Swinney, a Church of Scotland member, had his first marriage annulled in order to marry BBC journalist Elizabeth Quigley in the Roman Catholic Church in 2003.

He has, however, said that he continues to support the principle of people being allowed to self-identify their legal gender with no medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

His predecessor, Humza Yousaf, who resigned in April, began his reign with Muslim prayers in Bute House, the first minister’s official residence.

Lib Dems accused of deselecting candidate for his Christian faith

A Lib Dem prospective candidate is being deselected from his prospective Surrey seat for his Christian beliefs, according to a complaint he has made to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

David Campanale, 60, is set to be replaced as the party’s prospective MP candidate for Sutton and Cheam after a two-year campaign against him by members of his local party and a number of LGBT activists.

The Anglican and award-winning former BBC journalist has faced opposition after being linked with the Christian People’s Alliance (CPA) political party, which has campaigned against abortion and gay marriage. Opponents of his candidacy also claim he didn’t sufficiently declare his faith during the selection process.

A two-year campaign against him

Other Lib Dems claim his faith was not the issue, as other Lib Dem MPs are practising Christians, including party leader Sir Ed Davey.

Mr Campanale, who left the CPA in 2012, says the attacks against him are part of a wider attempt to secularise the Lib Dems.

Party members backing him are calling on the EHRC to launch a probe into ‘multiple alleged breaches of equality law and our party constitution’.

In a letter by them, quoted by the Telegraph, they state: “This evidence depicts a supposedly liberal organisation allowing clear religious discrimination and hostility to thrive within its ranks.”

Teacher’s case will be litmus test

The teacher sacked for calling a girl a girl has won the right to pursue a Judicial Review against the Department for Education’s decision to ban him from the teaching profession (see HEART April/May).

Since we first reported it, Joshua Sutcliffe’s appeal, at the High Court in London, is the first case to come to court after the Cass Review exposed the fallacies of transgender ideology and discouraged the gender transitioning of children, and after the government published its draft transgender guidance for schools.

New guidance vindicates him

The new guidance vindicates Sutcliffe, saying that teachers should not be forced, against their conscience, to address a pupil with preferred pronouns that contradict their biological sex.

Joshua’s case, which is supported by the Christian Legal Centre, is a litmus test for other teachers who have lost their jobs for similar reasons.

CitizenGo has raised a petition in support of Joshua, which can be signed at: citizengo.org/en-gb/fm/211001-unban-joshua-sutcliffe