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Abortion counselling story dangerously misleading
SPUC has warned about a newspaper story which claims that: "Abortion rules are set to be tightened by the Government in the biggest shake-up in a generation ... Pro-life campaigners suggest the change could result in up to 60,000 fewer abortions each year in Britain." (Robert Mendick, Sunday Telegraph, 28 Aug http://tgr.ph/nlR42z ) The Department of Health says it is drafting proposals which are expected to say who can be a pregnancy counsellor and what expectant mothers must be told. Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, said: "Handing the drafting of proposals relating to abortion to the Department of Health is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken-coop. The Department of Health commissions the vast majority of abortions in Britain, and says doctors should provide abortion on demand." John Smeaton, SPUC's director, also commented: "I urge pro-lifers not to be misled by the Sunday Telegraph story. Instead, pro-lifers should write to their MPs urging them to tell the government that in any proposals put forward:
- No counsellor should be required to be a conduit to abortion services;
- and counsellors who refuse on grounds of conscience or other good grounds to refer women to abortion services are not prevented from operating as pregnancy counsellors." [SPUC, 28 August] http://bit.ly/paYeFE
Call for government adviser to be sacked over assisted suicide backing
SPUC Pro-Life has called for Martin Green, the government's Dementia Champion, to be sacked after his backing of assisted suicide for elderly patients (Telegraph, 29 Aug http://tgr.ph/q3Gshg) Paul Tully, general secretary of SPUC Pro-Life, said: "Mr Green, who works for the English Community Care Association, representing the interests of care homes, is clearly not interested in caring for some dementia sufferers. He seems to want them dead. According to The Telegraph, Mr Green called for 'the mantra of choice and control' for patients to be extended to helping them to commit suicide when they could not do so by themselves ... A man with these views has no place advising the government on health policy, and is a disgrace to the English Community Care Association." [SPUC, 29 August] http://bit.ly/qBtlJg
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