They argue that it is necessary to halt abortions during the coronavirus crisis. SPUC is pointing to directions already endorsed in the USA by the US Surgeon General to ban all elective surgeries during the Coronavirus emergency.

John Smeaton, chief executive of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said:

 "It is vital to conserve our core services for genuine health emergencies rather than see them lost on unnecessary elective procedures like abortion.

"People in this country cannot get a GP appointment at this time of unprecedented crisis and yet the self-serving abortion lobby demands special treatment so they can continue with their inhuman agenda regardless of the misery and mayhem which surrounds them. It is shameful.

"It is an outrage that while our frontline health care professionals put their lives at risk on a daily basis to save patients’ lives, the abortion lobby demands much-needed health resources to continue to kill unborn babies and risk the lives of their mothers in the presence of catastrophic virus outbreak."

NHS hospitals have been told to cancel operations in an effort to free up 30,000 beds to create space for an expected surge in coronavirus patients.  In a letter to NHS chiefs this week, NHS England said hospitals should look to cancel all non-urgent surgeries for at least three months starting from 15 April.

The letter from NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: "The operational aim is to expand critical care capacity to the maximum; free up 30,000 (or more) of the English NHS’s 100,000 general and acute beds."

In the meantime, in the USA the pro-abortion lobby is causing confusion. As the US Surgeon General calls for all elective surgeries to be suspended, some abortion advocacy groups are demanding that abortions continue despite the desperate need for resources to be focused on tackling the Coronavirus emergency.

Mr Smeaton said: "We cannot have confusion that puts patients in genuine need of emergency care at risk. Almost everyone who attends hospital or doctors’ surgeries has some medical condition, illness or injury for which treatment is requested. This is not the case with women visiting abortion clinics - they arrive physically fit and healthy and the procedures that they undergo does not make them any fitter or healthier, even if successful. Abortion is an elective procedure carried out on healthy women which is an unnecessary drain on health resources at a time when those resources are desperately needed elsewhere.

In the initial stages of the SPUC campaign it is intended to encourage pro-life legislators to challenge the Westminster and devolved Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland legislatures, as well as Departments of Health.

Mr Smeaton said: "Those in power must be held to account and urged to reconsider abortion plans which so clearly threaten the health of mothers and represent an irresponsible misuse of vital resources. We shall also be urging similar action throughout the world."

Mr Smeaton said that the coronavirus outbreak presents a host of unanswered questions which should result in the abortion industry being closed down around the world.

Mr Smeaton said:

"Who has the skill and the knowledge at abortion clinics to carry out the necessary diagnostic tests to identify coronavirus?

"Who, at every abortion clinic in the country has the responsibility to ensure that there is no risk of cross infection of this highly infectious disease and how is that risk eliminated?

"On what medical or scientific basis do abortion clinics claim to be able to identify that a client has or has not contracted Coronavirus - which medical and/or scientific person or body have they consulted and what written evidence can they produce?

"How is such identification carried out in fact at every clinic?"

Mr Smeaton said the pandemic raises huge questions concerning potentially serious risks to women’s health with a mounting number of concerns over abortion services and especially the capacity of private abortion clinics to deal with the threats to health. He asked:

• On what medical or scientific basis is an abortionist satisfied that surgical abortion procedures do not expose women to the coronavirus?
• One of the comments which appears in reports from Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care services in England, is the risk of cross infection at several private abortion clinics.  In the case of coronavirus, this risk must be greatly increased. How are clients protected from contracting coronavirus when visiting an abortion clinic? 
• Who has the skill and the knowledge at every one of those abortion clinics to carry out the necessary diagnostic tests to identify coronavirus?
• Who, at every abortion clinic in the country has the responsibility to ensure that there is no risk of cross infection of this highly infectious disease and how is that risk eliminated?

Mr Smeaton said: "There is a clear case for SPUC to launch a national and international campaign at this dreadful time. The ramifications extend throughout the UK and across the planet. As the world’s oldest pro-life group, we have a responsibility to take the lead and we shall do so as we engage with our international contacts to promote our campaign. In the meantime, we invite women across the world faced with unexpected pregnancies to seek positive help from crisis pregnancy organisations, so that the lives of their babies and their own health can be protected amid the current loss of life."