SPUC to hold annual conference London, - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) will hold its annual national conference in West Yorkshire from Friday (7 September) till Sunday (9 September). On Friday evening, Mr George Verwer, former international director of Operation Mobilisation, will welcome delegates. Ms Nicole Parker, a FertilityCare practitioner at the Central London FertilityCare Centre, will talk about NaPro technology, a fertility treatment which is more effective than IVF and, unlike IVF, ethical. On Saturday, Dr James L Sherley, senior scientist in programs in regenerative biology and cancer at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, Massachusetts, will describe the ethical and scientific flaws in human embryonic stem cell research. Ms Darla St Martin, associate executive director of National Right to Life, Washington, DC, will describe how the pro-life movement in the USA has saved many lives. Sr Roseann Reddy will talk about her work with the pro-life initiative founded 10 years ago by the late Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow. On Sunday morning, Donna Nicholson, deputy director of SPUC Scotland, and Cathy MacBean of British Victims of Abortion will describe the Silent No More Campaign which involves women and men giving public testimony to their experience of abortion, and describing the help that is available to those who have been through it. Mr Robin Haig, SPUC national chairman, and John Smeaton, national director, will close the conference by describing their plans for SPUC's future. John Smeaton said: "The great task which faces SPUC today is to stand up and be counted for the most vulnerable human beings in Britain. These include spina bifida babies in the womb, 90% of whom are killed and never see the light of day, and Down's babies in the womb, 92% of whom are killed before they see the light of day. Also at grave risk are unborn children in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, whom parliamentarians, like Dr Evan Harris and Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood, want to see completely abandoned, if they get support for tabling abortion amendments to the Human Tissue and Embryos draft bill soon to come before Parliament. "We must also stand up and be counted for women and girls under pressure to have abortions, and for women and girls suffering after an abortion, including young girls at school, including faith schools, pressured to have an abortion without their parents' knowledge or consent. The unborn disabled, the unborn in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, post-abortion women and girls - these are the poorest of the poor in Britain and it's SPUC's job to take practical action and to speak out in their support." As well as plenary sessions, there will be workshops on fundraising and outreach, the Mental Capacity Act's implications for patients, pro-life action by Muslims, taking the pro-life message on to the streets, and combating explicit sex education and abortion referral in schools. The conference takes place at Trinity and All Saints College, Brownberrie Lane, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 5HD. The sessions run from 19:30 on Friday till noon on Sunday. The residential event includes optional evangelical prayer and Catholic Mass.