Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: (020) 7091 7091
Fax: (020) 7820 3131
Email: information@spuc.org.uk

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Abortion judgement will cause confusion and anger, says SPUC

Westminster, 23rd January 2006 - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said today that parents will be confused and angry at the judgment of Mr Justice Silber in the Sue Axon case today.

Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, commented: "Abortion, as well as killing an unborn child, can have long-term physical, social and psychological effects on young women - and this is acknowledged and emphasised by the judge. We believe that the judgment was right to stress these health risks, as well as acknowledging the social, moral, religious and cultural issues at stake.

"However, abortions and abortion-inducing drugs are routinely provided for under-16 year-olds by the Department of Health, flouting the 1985 legal guidelines on provision of contraception and abortion to under-16s that the judge said were valid and of great importance.

"The judgment is written in the assumption that the guidelines are widely known and carefully observed. In effect the judge pays lip-service to the 1985 rules, while ignoring the contempt in which they are held by health officials.

"The demands from the pro-abortion lobby that it should be allowed to provide young teenagers with abortions secretly (keeping GPs as well as parents in the dark) shows how brazen it has become. Mr Silber's judgment will encourage the pro-abortion lobby to become more vehement in its demands. Mr Silber's inclusion of contentious statements, such as the claim that a "right to abortion" exists in English law, is disturbing. It suggests that his thinking is dominated by those who campaign to create such a right by asserting that it already exists, and ignores Parliament's decision in 1967 to legalise abortion only in specific situations, primarily of risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman."