SPUC condemns Clare Short's calls for more abortions

Westminster, 25 August 2002--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned Britain's international development secretary's call for abortion to be declared a human right at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

SPUC delegate to the Earth Summit Peter C. Smith said: "Clare Short still seems stuck in the late 60s with the myth that population control equals less poverty. As an in-depth study in this week's Economist has shown, America's increasingly higher fertility rate will almost certainly lead to a younger, more dynamic and prosperous society, whereas decreasing European fertility partly caused by abortion will mean that Europe becomes even more the Old World."

Mr Smith continued: "Abortion is not a human right but an outdated and unnecessary procedure which is destructive of both children and society as a whole. As a recent ground-breaking survey of desired health needs in Ghana showed, abortion is not only unwanted but rejected by people in the developing world."

Mr Smith concluded: "Does the British government's pro-abortion ideology know no bounds?"