Sam Gyimah MP

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Gyimah,

We welcome your proposal to create a new set of guidelines to provide much needed clarity around free speech in universities.

SPUC is the oldest pro-life organisation in the world and the UK’s largest.  We have been speaking out in defence of the right to life of unborn children for over 50 years.  The pro-life position has never been "fashionable", but it is an issue grounded in robust scientific, medical and ethical research.

Earlier this year, we noted that the report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights on free speech highlighted the censorship faced by pro-life university students.

Freedom of expression is one of the rights we cherish in this country and it is indeed "chilling" when certain voices are silenced because they are unpalatable to others.

The true nature of free speech was highlighted in a recent court case in Nottingham. An injunction was brought against a citizen who gives public, pro-life witness outside a hospital where abortions are performed.  The judge threw out the case and, among other things, said that the right of freedom of expression was not a right if it could only be exercised at the choosing or discretion of another person.  

The right to speak up for the most defenceless members of the human race, unborn babies, is one that SPUC will defend to the end, whether it be on university campuses or outside abortion facilities.

Thank you for this much-need initiative. As the pro-life movement has been particularly targeted in recent acts of blocking free discussion in universities, you may wish to draw on our experience when formulating the new guidelines.

Yours sincerely,

Antonia Tully

SPUC Director of Campaigns