SPUC organises Pro-Life Chains to promote the pro-life message around the country
We are the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the oldest pro-life campaigning and educational organisation in the world.
Our Society was founded in January 1967 to oppose the abortion bill being debated in Parliament at the time. That bill would go on to become the 1967 Abortion Act, while we became the UK's first and largest pro-life group.
SPUC is a grassroots organisation. With over 100 branches and 45,000 supporters across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland we are the largest pro-life group in the UK. You too can join our national movement for life, and support our life-affirming work. Being the first pro-life group in the world means we have built up extensive experience in all the pro-life areas that we cover. Read more about the successes we've had here and see us on the media here.
Abortion is the biggest killer of children in the world today, and has tragically claimed the lives of over 9 million children in the UK since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.
SPUC works to protect human lives at the national and local level, and to build a society free from abortion.
As well as fighting abortion, we also campaign against other direct threats to the lives of vulnerable individuals, such as euthanasia and embryo abuse. We recognise the need to have a consistent life ethic - to value the lives of all human beings equally - and the foundation of this must always be recognising the humanity of the child in the womb.
March for Life: sporting SPUC baseball caps Our aims
SPUC's principal argument against abortion rests on the humanity of the unborn child and the right to life. Our aims are spelt out in our constitution:
- To affirm, defend and promote the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception until natural death.
- To defend and protect human life generally and in particular, whether born or unborn (although principally the latter) and wheresoever situate (although principally in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland and Europe).
- To reassert the principle laid down in the United Nations' "Declaration of the Rights of the Child" (1959) that "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth."
- To defend, assist and promote the life and welfare of mothers during pregnancy and of their children from the time of conception up to, during and after birth.
Our principles
We base all our work on these principles of natural justice:
- it is wrong to kill innocent human beings
- everyone should be treated equally
- all human beings are people with rights
- children deserve special protection and care
- the weakest in society must be protected by the law
These are principles that everyone can agree on, whatever their political, religious or cultural beliefs.