Bernadette Smyth is a respected pro-life campaigner

SPUC is disturbed by a ruling by a Belfast court against a respected pro-life campaigner. Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life has been found guilty of harassment against Dawn Purvis, the director of the Marie Stopes abortion centre in Belfast.

Liam Gibson, SPUC's Northern Ireland development officer, said: "I find it very hard to believe that Bernadette Smyth, a highly-respected and long-serving pro-life leader, is guilty of criminal conduct.

"It would be quite wrong for her forthright opposition to abortion to be misconstrued as harassment of women considering abortion or of abortion centre staff." [SPUC, 19 November]

Other stories:

• Swiss assisted suicide escorts produce film
• 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Birth control injections for poor African women condemned by SPUC
• Abortion debate cancelled by Oxford college
• Two fathers die from infected kidneys
  
• Husband and wife reject abortion to welcome quintuplets [LifeNews.com, 16 May]
• 21 pro-life women elected to US Congress [Live Action, 16 November]