Aims

Activities

The defence of the defenceless

SPUC represents a voice for the unborn. SPUC promotes awareness of the humanity of the unborn child to encourage more widespread recognition of the obligation to defend those with no means to defend themselves.

Political lobbying

SPUC maintains that all unborn children are entitled to the protection of the law. At constituency level, branches and individual members of SPUC lobby their members of parliament on right-to-life issues. SPUC promotes the importance of the civil right and duty to lobby elected representatives and encourages its members and the public to make representations, as appropriate, to councillors and to members of the European parliament, Scottish parliament, and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies, as well as to their MP. SPUC monitors the voting records of MPs and MEPs on abortion, embryo experimentation and euthanasia, and is thus able to inform the public of what their elected representatives have done on these issues.
SPUC encourages people who are pro-life to join the political party of their choice, since these are the fora in which individuals can work most effectively in the political field for the good of society, including the right to life of the unborn baby.

Education4Life

SPUC Scotland's Education4Life programme provides school talks on a range of beginning and end of life issues that specifically cater for the Scottish secondary school curriculum.  The service is completely free of charge for all schools and provides teachers and pupils with a pro-life perspective on issues such as abortion and euthanasia.

Education4Life services also offers a P7 programme on foetal development. 

SPUC Scotland's Education4Life service does not use graphic images of abortion in any talks or educational materials. 

In addition, SPUC has developed a range of educational material. Project packs, sent free to students and teachers on request, are available on a variety of beginning and end of life issues.. Videos may be bought or hired from the society, and a list of current pro-life publications is available.

Foetal models

The most influential project of the SPUC Educational Research Trust, SPUC's educational charity, is How You Began, a set of anatomically accurate foetal models. It has an accompanying booklet showing the child in the womb at five stages of development. The models are used extensively in schools, hospitals and crisis pregnancy centres in Britain, and attract orders from overseas. A set of the models was sent free of charge to every state secondary school in Britain in 1990, to the acclaim of many teachers.

Education for members

SPUC organises conferences to disseminate information to members and supporters, providing them with the opportunity to hear expert guest speakers, and to encourage their more active participation in pro-life work. Educational events are also held for SPUC branches and trainee speakers, including events which involve media training, in addition to full-day seminars on bioethical issues.

Disability awareness

No Less Human (NLH) is a group within SPUC for disabled people, their families and carers. Disabled people are threatened throughout their lives by the mentality that says they would be better off dead. NLH campaigns to secure in law the equal right to life of disabled people from conception to natural death.

Welfare

While SPUC is primarily an educational and lobbying organisation, it also responds to requests for assistance from expectant mothers facing difficulties. We draw on our experience and extensive contacts to see that they receive the help they need to avoid abortion, often in spite of very difficult circumstances. This is primarily the responsibility of the SPUC Educational Research Trust's welfare officer.

Counselling for those harmed by abortion is provided by Abortion Recovery and Care Helpline (ARCH), a division of the SPUC Educational Research Trust, founded by women who have had abortions and are in a position to help others with the emotional difficulties they are experiencing.

Public acts of witness

SPUC organises public events to raise awareness of the loss of life and harm to women brought about under the Abortion Act. Every year, usually to mark the anniversary of the Act's coming into force on 27 April 1968, SPUC's Pro-Life Chains are held in towns and cities around the UK.. The Pro-Life Chain is a continuous line of volunteers silently holding placards to the view of passing traffic.

Contributing to public debate

National and local spokespersons of the society participate frequently in interviews and debates in the press and the broadcast media. SPUC makes available referenced briefing material on all aspects of the pro-life issues as a resource for members who contribute to the letter columns of the press, including national, local and religious publications.
The society frequently arranges public meetings, provides speakers to address interested groups, and organises press conferences to promote major pro-life publications, often in collaboration with members of parliament.

Publications

The Scottish Pro-Life Times, SPUC Scotland's newspaper, reports on developments nationally and internationally, chiefly in the British parliament, the law, the media and the medical profession. The Pro-Life Times is distributed by SPUC branches and activists to promote the society's work.
SPUC Scotland also publishes a Newsletter to update members and supporters on pro-life issues and activities taking place in Scotland and around the world.

SPUC also publishes its charities bulletin which reports the stated or known stance and activities of charities in relation to pro-life issues. The purpose of the bulletin is to promote a shift towards pro-life policies by encouraging readers, where charities have policies which they find unacceptable, to take up their concerns with those charities, asking them to change their policies so that they can in conscience support them.

Major publications of the SPUC Educational Research Trust include Legal Abortion Examined (1992), the first full survey in any country of two decades of abortion statistics, and ...and still they weep (1996), recounting 20 case histories of the effect of abortion on the mother and other family members.   SPUC has published Love Your Unborn Neighbour (1993), aimed primarily at Evangelical Christians, which comprehensively explores the pro-life issues.

International action

SPUC monitors developments in the European Parliament and works with MEPs to promote pro-life measures in Europe. The society makes available its advice and assistance for pro-life initiatives in other countries in collaboration with overseas colleagues.
The SPUC Educational Research Trust sends delegates to United Nations conferences to promote the right to life and to disseminate the results of research on demographic issues. Pro-life groups attending the UN monitor conference documents for language which could be used to promote abortion as a human right, and assist developing nations to oppose the imposition of abortion on their countries, contrary to their legal, ethical and religious traditions.