Welcome to SPUC’s pro-life Traffic Light Guide to charities.
Many people want to support charities which do not go against their pro-life values. This updated guide has been prepared to help you in deciding which charities you would like to support.
Red charities = anti-life practices or policies
Amber charities = some anti-life aspects to their work
Green charities = no anti-life activities to our knowledge
To find out about a particular charity insert the charity’s name here and click "Search":
{module Search for a charity}
Click here to list all the charities.
If we do not have information on the specific charity you are looking for, please help us expand our Traffic Light Guide by writing to this charity and ask about its policy and practice on the pro-life issue(s) most relevant to its work. Please send us a copy of the reply you receive. You may also want to send us photos of posters or storefronts, screenshots or links from websites or examples of published materials from this charity. Please send information to charities@spuc.org.uk or by post to SPUC, Unit B, 3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB. Thank you.
Supporting a culture of life
Here are some actions you can take to support a culture of life using this Charities Bulletin.
When you donate to a green charity, let them know that you support the statement they have made about a pro-life issue.
If you want to donate to an amber charity, ask them to reconsider their position on the pro-life issue which concerns you. Please let us see the response you receive so that, hopefully, we can update our record and include the charity in the green list.
Challenge a red charity about their practice and policy and support a green charity doing the same type of work.
Grow the Traffic Light Guide
There are many thousands of charities in the UK, including many small, local charities. Please help us to grow the Traffic Light Guide by writing to more charities. For guidance on writing to a charity and gathering information about a charity, please see here.
Key pro-life issues referred to in the Traffic Light Guide
In Britain embryo experimentation involves research carried out on human embryos up to 14 days after conception. The law in Britain requires that all embryos used in research be destroyed.
Read more... A new opt-out system for organ donation will be in place by 2020 in England, if Parliament approves "Max's Law". Under the plans detailed by ministers, adults will be presumed to be organ donors unless they have specifically recorded their decision not to be.
Read more... Reproductive health is a euphemism which has been used for decades to describe abortion and contraception. Charities which support, in principle and/or practice, the fifth of the Sustainable Millennium Goals are endorsing: ‘5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences’ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5#targets
This is an umbrella group with over 140 member charities which are involved in medical research. All members of the AMRC are required to ‘support the principle of using animals in research’.
https://www.amrc.org.uk/Pages/Category/research The AMRC is less explicit about its support for the use of human embryos in research. However, in a joint statement on genome editing in human cells, the AMRC says: ‘We will continue to support the use of genome editing in preclinical biomedical research as well as studies that progress and refine these technologies. Within the UK, this research may involve the use of somatic (non-reproductive) or germ cells, including human embryos up to 14 days old - within the confines of the HFE Act 2008 - where appropriately justified and supported by rigorous scientific and ethical review.’ (Emphasis added.) The full statement, which can be seen here
https://www.amrc.org.uk/Pages/Category/genome-editing, is signed by: The Academy of Medical Sciences; Cancer Research UK; BBSRC - bioscience for the future; Medical Research Trust; Progress Educational Trust; Wellcome Trust; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Charities which are members of the AMRC pay an annual membership fee ranging from £375 - £4,495 depending on the charity’s income.
https://www.amrc.org.uk/become-a-member Even though the membership fees are small, donations to charities which are members of the AMRC could go towards the membership fee.
Charities which are part of the AMRC are supporting embryo research through their membership, even if, as in many cases, they are not directly funding projects which use human embryos. The remit of the HFEA is to ‘provide free, clear and impartial information to all affected by fertility treatment. We are the UK Government’s independent regulator overseeing fertility treatment and research’. The HFEA is the body which approves licences for research on human embryos. It is important to note that regulation by the HFEA gives no protection at all to human embryos, denying them human status. Whether the use of human embryos is regulated by a government body or not, every embryo used in research is destroyed. Regulation does not make embryo research ethical. The HFEA is more than a regulatory body, it is a portal for finding IVF clinics and for facilities for donating eggs and sperm.
https://www.hfea.gov.uk/ The HFEA supports and facilitates embryo testing during IVF so that only embryos which pass the screening for genetic conditions are placed in the womb.
https://www.hfea.gov.uk/treatments/embryo-testing-and-treatments-for-disease/ Click here to Search the Traffic Light Guide.