3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: (020) 7091 7091
Fax: (020) 7820 3131
Email: information@spuc.org.uk
Pro-lifers campaign against morning-after pill outside pharmacists
Westminster, 19 January 2001--Pro-life campaigners are distributing leaflets outside chemists' shops warning people about the dangers and true nature of the morning-after pill.Members of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
are giving out leaflets after the government reclassified the
morning-after pill as a drug available from pharmacists without
prescription. The drugs will be available to women over 16 and the
pharmacist, not a doctor, will be responsible if anything goes wrong.
John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, explained: "The
morning-after pill can cause an early abortion. Not to inform women of
this vital fact is a betrayal of trust. It is dishonest and misleading
of the government to present it as 'emergency contraception'. The
morning-after pill is a potent drug and is intended to work by
preventing a newly conceived human embryo from implanting in his or her
mother's womb. This is turning chemists into front-line abortion
providers."
The pro-life campaigners are also concerned about the potential
health risks to women and girls. Mr Smeaton said: "Pharmacists will not
have access to a woman's medical history, and her GP will not be
informed unless she has specifically requested that this happen.
Moreover, common sense suggests that easy availability of the
morning-after pill will leave teenage girls more at risk of sexual
abuse and under greater pressure to engage in casual sex.
"There is also absolutely no evidence that the new scheme will
reduce the number of clinical abortions. The 1990s saw an almost
five-fold increase in prescriptions for the morning-after pill in
England yet, over the same period, the overall rate of abortion rose."
Leaflets are being distributed by SPUC members in:
- Acton
- Altrincham and Sale
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Basildon
- Bexley
- Birkenhead
- Blackpool
- Bodmin
- Bolton
- Bourne
- Burnley
- Burton-on-Trent
- Bury
- Bury St Edmunds
- Cardiff
- Cheltenham
- Chester
- Chorley
- Chorlton
- Colwyn Bay
- Coventry
- Crosby
- Croydon
- Crumpsall
- Dewsbury
- Diss
- Dover
- Downham Market
- East Devon and West Dorset
- Eccles
- Erdington
- Farnham
- Folkestone and Hythe
- Gloucester
- Gower
- Halifax
- Halton
- Harrow
- Hoylake
- Huddersfield
- Huntingdon
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Kirkham
- Leeds
- Leigh
- Lincoln
- Liverpool Woolton
- Lutterworth
- Neston
- Newport
- Nottingham
- Nuneaton
- Oldham
- Peterborough
- Plymouth
- Preston
- Rotherham
- Rutland and Melton
- Salford
- Solihull
- Stockton
- Stretford
- Stroud
- Torquay
- Tower Hamlets
- Twickenham and Richmond
- Walton
- Wansbeck
- Warrington
- West Cumbria
- Westmorland
- Withington
- Woodbridge
- Worthing
