Major UK pro-life conference was great success : The 2011 annual national conference of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), held this past weekend (16-18 Sep.), was a great success.
SPUC http://www.spuc.org.uk is the UK's largest and the world's oldest pro-life political and educational organisation, founded in 1967.
The conference was held at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire. Numbers of young and new delegates were up on previous years.
The conference started on Friday (16 Sep.) evening with presentations by SPUC's youth activists reporting enthusiastically about the many different facets of their pro-life outreach (full report )
In the coming weeks they will be handing out leaflets about abortion at university freshers' fairs (full report ) On Saturday (17 Sep.) Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo, told delegates how his sister's killing was the Roe w Wade of euthanasia, referring to the 1972 US Supreme Court ruling which legalised abortion (full report )
Since Terri's death her family has formed the Life and Hope Network to help other families in the same situation in the US and around the world. Mr Schindler said: "We're all in this battle together. If we can't have regard for life how can we have it for anything else?"
John Smeaton, SPUC's director, proposed the 9 Million Children Campaign, in which SPUC would build the capacity to deliver nine million leaflets in one leaflet drop so that SPUC can take its message about abortion, regularly, straight to the British public.
SPUC calculates that by April 2018, the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act, nine million children will have been killed under the legislation.
(full report ) Fiorella Nash, one of SPUC's political researchers, delivered a powerful and deeply personal address entitled "Maternal mortality and abortion in developing countries: the need for a pro-life response" (full report ).
She said: "The western obsession with promoting its own vision of sexuality onto the rest of the world is not only costing the lives of the unborn; it is costing the lives of women through neglect."
SPUC's new schools talk was launched, which includes the latest available audio-visual resources to educate the next generation about unborn children and abortion (full report ) Eileen Brydon, SPUC's education officer, told the conference: "Every time a SPUC speaker speaks to students they are touching the hearts and minds of future generations. That is because they are speaking the truth. A SPUC schools speaker will both change and save lives".
Saturday evening featured a ceilidh and socialising.
Fun was had by young and old alike.
On Sunday (18 Sep.) Antonia Tully told delegates how SPUC's Safe at School campaign is working to stop the abortion lobby's sex education plans (full report ) Mrs Tully said: "We won't be able to communicate the pro-life message to the next generation if they are so hardened by state-sponsored sex education."
Peter Saunders, campaign director of the Care Not Killing Alliance and head of the Christian Medical Fellowship, was given the Pro-Life Hero 2011 award (full report )
He closed the conference with an address on the UK's pro-euthanasia lobby, explaining how its parliamentary attempts to change the law on assisted suicide have failed.
High-resolution versions of all the photos above and below can be downloaded by clicking on them: * Joe Lee, SPUC youth outreach officer * Anne Howard, Students for Life society, Bristol University * Daniel, SPUC youth activist * Young SPUC activists from Dundee with Bobby Schindler * Eve Farren (Students for Life society, Bristol University); Dr Philip Howard; Anne Howard; Sue Jamieson * Young SPUC activists with Peter Smith, SPUC's officer at the United Nations (2nd from left) * A disabled lady gives SPUC the thumbs-up! * SPUC's merchandise team * SPUC Evangelicals with Peter Saunders (2nd from right) * Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary * Robin Haig, SPUC's chairman * Michael Hill, SPUC's vice-chairman For more information, please contact Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, on (0)7939 177683 or (020) 7820 3129 or news@spuc.org.uk