Structure of the society

Membership

Membership of SPUC is open to all who support the society's aims and objects. The society has more than 45,000 members throughout the United Kingdom.

Branches

A branch of SPUC is a group of SPUC members working in unison with the society as a whole to gain the protection of the law for all unborn children. It is the local organ of the society, raising awareness, raising funds and influencing the community through leafleting, letters to the local press and organising public events.

Regional structure

Most branches of SPUC form part of regions, which enable branches to work together on major campaigns, and organise speakers' courses to ensure the availability of trained speakers in the region. Regional committees also elect representatives to serve on the society's national council.

National council and executive committee

SPUC's national council is the society's policy-making body. The council elects the national chairman, the vice-chairman and treasurer of the society. An executive committee and a scottish executive committee are also elected to ensure the execution of the policies determined by the council.

The intake of council members from the regions ensures democracy in the society's policy-making. Furthermore, with the exception of the national director and the general secretary, no paid staff or consultants of SPUC may serve on the council or executive committee. This protects the disinteredness of the decisions made by the Society's policy-making and steering bodies.

The president

The presidency of SPUC is an honorary position conferred by the council in recognition of the recipient's contribution to the pro-life movement. Presidents of the society have included the late Professor Jerome Lejeune, the geneticist who identified the chromosomal cause of Down's syndrome, and international bioethicist Rev Dr Anthony Fisher OP.

Headquarters and regional offices

The society maintains a London headquarters, which serves as a base for the national director, general secretary, information department and membership department. The Society's development officers, who instigate and strengthen SPUC branches, are in Glasgow, Preston (also the base of the fundraising department) and Stockton-on-Tees. SPUC has more than 40 staff, for the most part based in one of the offices but, in some cases, serving on a consultancy basis.

Divisions

SPUC has divisions which promote pro-life activity in particular areas.

No Less Human (formerly Handicap division)

The SPUC handicap division (now called No Less Human) was formed in the late 1970s to counter the discriminatory mentality of the clause in the Abortion Act which allows unborn babies to be killed when, in the doctors' judgement, there was "substantial risk" that they would be born "seriously handicapped." Membership of the division is open to disabled people, their families and their carers, to campaign to secure in law the equal right to life of all disabled people from conception to natural death. Members undertake activities appropriate to their particular talents, including writing in to national and regional newspapers and speaking at various venues to promote the infinite value of all human life, and in particular the right to life of disabled people.

Muslim division

The Muslim division has existed since 1991 to facilitate the active participation of Muslims in defence of the sanctity of unborn life, which is clearly expressed in the sacred texts of Islam. The division's contact with leading figures in the British Muslim community has helped to promote solidarity with Muslims worldwide in their opposition to abortion and population control, keeping vigilance for government participation in attempts to impose such policies contrary to the humane values which Islam shares with all major religions.

SPUC Evangelicals

SPUC Evangelicals was formed in 1991 to promote the biblical understanding of the sanctity of human life, to work with churches, societies and other bodies having an Evangelical presence so that they may fulfil their task of defending unborn children, and to assist individual Christians in taking a pro-life stand. Membership of the division is open to members of SPUC who are in agreement with the division's biblical basis of action and wish to pursue its aims.

Trade union division

Since its formation in 1979-80, the trade union division has coordinated pro-life activity in unions to counter pro-abortion policies. Members are encouraged to take an active part in their unions to serve the interests of their colleagues and, when appropriate, work to reverse pro-abortion policies (such as affiliation to the National Abortion Campaign) or establish neutral policies. Division members organise leafleting and meetings at union conferences, propose motions for debate, and use the organs of communication in their union to express opposition to policies that support abortion.

Youth and student division

The youth and student division was set up in 1974 to foster pro-life commitment among individual students and to develop pro-life groups at universities, colleges and schools. The division provides young people with information to enable them to educate others, by organising educational events including an annual conference for pro-life students and an annual lecture tour to places of study. The division also provides support to pro-life campaigns in universities and colleges aimed at halting or reversing pro-abortion policies.

Nurses Opposed to Euthanasia

Nurses Opposed to Euthanasia believe that the intentional killing of a patient is never acceptable regardless of the circumstances. NOE was initiated in liaison with SPUC in January 2001 and was incorporated as a division of the Society in 2004. The principal aims of the division are to protect patients from practices aimed at killing them and to provide support to the nurses and relatives of those patients who are under threat of euthanasia. Membership of the division is open to nurses and allied professionals who are members of SPUC.

Services to other sectors

Other interests are catered for by the society, without the structure of a division.

Medicine and nursing

The society provides advice and support to medical and nursing professionals seeking to uphold respect for human life from conception. We are concerned especially to protect their rights of conscientious objection to abortion, both in general and under the provisions of the conscience clause in the Abortion Act, financing legal action if necessary.

Catholics

Events of interest to Catholics in the pro-life movement have been organised by Catholics in SPUC on an ad hoc basis. A British group joined the pilgrimage to Rome in 1994 of families from around the world, in response to a call from Pope John Paul II to give witness to the sanctity of life and the integrity of the family.

The SPUC Educational Research Trust

The trust is a registered charity set up by SPUC in 1982 to finance non-political activities such as educational projects (e.g. the How You Began foetal model project), counselling, and research, including medical research without human embryo experimentation. The trust also sends delegates to United Nations conferences to disseminate the results of research on demographic issues and maternal and child welfare, and seek for the protection of the right to life to be safeguarded in the conference documents.

Specialist areas of activity have been developed under the auspices of the Trust

British Victims of Abortion (BVA)

BVA was set up in 1987 in response to the many requests for help received from women who had had abortions and were experiencing emotional difficulties which severely affected their quality of life. In addition to counselling, BVA is engaged in educational work, including press and media interviews, and offers training both to those who have come through its healing programme, and to other interested professionals, to counsel others suffering after abortion.

The Anna Fund

The Anna Fund is a registered charity, administered by the SPUC Educational Research Trust, set up in 1990 to fund the research of Professor Jerome Lejeune aimed at developing treatment, and eventually a cure, for children with Down's syndrome, without the use of human embryos. Since the death of Professor Lejeune in 1994, the fund has continued to finance the work that he began and, in 1996, opened the first Lejeune Clinic in London where treatment is available for children with Down's.