17 November 2006

SPUC SCOTLAND STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE NEWS THAT A THIRD OF SCOTS' BIRTHS ARE UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES

SPUC Scotland believes this study has been motivated by a desire to promote more use of emergency contraception but this and other forms of contraception come with a clear acknowledgment that there is no form of contraception that is 100 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy, there is nothing new in this.

SPUC Scotland hopes such findings will not be used to try to promote either wider use of MAPs or abortion provision and would state that having an 'unplanned' baby is not the same as having an 'unwanted' baby, clearly these figures prove that more women with unplanned pregnancies continue with the pregnancy than don't, and that the majority of baby births in Scotland are planned.

27 October 2006

SCOTS WOMEN OPTING FOR MULTIPLE ABORTIONS

A quarter of all abortions in Scotland are repeats, with some women opting for abortion five times or more, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in Scotland can reveal.

The figures on repeat abortions were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by SPUC, Scotland’s leading pro-life campaign organisation, and for the first time ever paint a clearer picture about the true nature of abortion in Scotland.

In particular the figures for the under-25 age group reveal that many of Scotland’s young women are having their second and third abortions, dispelling the myth that repeat abortions occur to women in later life who have had a previous abortion in their early childbearing years.

For the first time the statistics show that of Scotland’s repeat abortions, most are second but many are third, fourth and even fifth abortions.

In 2005 80% of Scotland’s repeat abortions were second abortions (2,505), while 16% were third abortions (522) and the remaining 4% were four or more (175).

Women under-25 make up nearly half of all those having their second abortion (43%), and 152 women in Scotland last year had had three abortions by the time they reached 25 years of age, and 37 had at least four abortions.

Ian Murray, Director of SPUC Scotland said: “These figures suggest that some young women use abortion simply as another form of birth control. A number of MPs currently are calling for a reduction in the upper time limit for social abortions. If they are really concerned about women they will join with us in offering women real choices and support through better care and counselling facilities. Abortion is not the answer to a woman’s crisis pregnancy.

“During the debate on the Abortion Bill back in 1967 much was made of the need for legalised abortion in order to resolve the difficult cases of rape, women who were said to be overburdened by childbearing, and young women who would find it difficult to cope. Clearly this tragic Act has led to enormous abuse. That women can have three and four abortions before their 25th birthday is a public scandal.”

Notes to Editor: The Abortion Act was passed on 27th October 1967. Figures attached were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the Information and Statistics Division of the Scottish Executive.

For further information please contact:
Ian Murray 0141 225 3692; 07729 628581

26 November 2003

“ABORTION IS NOT AND CAN NEVER BE THE SOLUTION TO TEENAGE PREGNANCY”

This was the reaction of Ian Murray, director of SPUC Scotland to the latest teenage pregnancy figures for the year 2002 released today. The figures show a drop in the numbers and rates of teenage pregnancy, with these being at their lowest level since 1995. However, there was also a rise in the percentage of teenage pregnancies that end in abortion in both the 13-15 and 16-19 age groups.

Mr Murray commented, “Whether a young girl chooses to keep or to end her pregnancy this event will be one that marks her life forever. Teenage pregnancy is rightly seen as a tragedy, particularly for girls under the age of 16. However what we see more and more is that abortion is being presented as the easy solution to this problem, when the reality is that one set of problems is only being traded for another.

“57.5% of pregnancies to girls aged 13-15 now end in abortion, this is nearly a 5% increase on last years figures. Early sexual activity carries health dangers to all young girls and when abortion is presented as the solution to teenage pregnancy the risk of health damage, both physical and psychological, is then further increased. While it is pleasing to see a fall in the number of teenage girls becoming pregnant it cannot be considered a success that the majority of those who do find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy choose abortion. The causes of teenage pregnancy must be tackled more effectively to prevent young girls from becoming pregnant in the first place and a large part of this must be to ensure that young people are better educated not only about the consequences of sexual activity but also about the serious and life-changing consequences of abortion”.

Jacqueline Dalrymple 26 November 2003

25 July 2003

SPUC SCOTLAND CONDEMNS CALL FOR GREATER ACCESS TO ABORTION AND THE MORNING-AFTER PILL

SPUC Scotland refutes claims by Ms Caroline Leckie, MSP, that women in Scotland seeking abortion care suffer harassment from pro-life campaigners. Ms Leckie today asked the Scottish Executive if its new proposals for Scotland’s sexual health strategy contained plans to ensure access for all women to abortion care free from harassment. SPUC Scotland challenged Ms Leckie to produce evidence that such harassment existed.

Mr Ian Murray, Director, said “All of Scotland’s abortions are carried out within NHS facilities where women are able to access abortion under the same conditions as they would access any other medical procedure. The suggestion that women are being harassed is as ludicrous as Ms Leckie’s allegation that women in Scotland do not have equal access to abortion. With 12,000 abortions being carried out every year in Scotland, it is hard to see how claims can be made that women have difficulty in accessing these procedures”.

Ms Leckie also put it to the Executive that their proposals should include free provision of the morning-after pill to women across Scotland.

Mr Murray continued, “Proposals to make the morning-after pill available free of charge to all women are totally irresponsible and show utter disregard for the health and welfare of Scotland’s women. This is a drug, which in some cases can cause an early abortion. The morning-after pill is an extremely powerful drug which has had no long-term tests carried out on its effects on the health and fertility of women. Its promotion encourages sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and only exacerbates the every growing problem of the spread of the sexually transmitted diseases, which are killing our nation’s fertility”.

Jacqueline Dalrymple 25 July 2003

1 July 2003

CALL FOR USE OF EGGS FROM ABORTED FOETUSES IS MORALLY REPUGNANT

SPUC Scotland condemns the call from the international scientific community to allow the use of eggs from aborted babies in fertility treatment and considers any such move to be both disgusting and morally repugnant.

Jacqueline Dalrymple, Education Officer, stated “The call to use eggs from aborted foetuses comes as no surprise considering the complete disregard for morality that we have seen since the advent of reproductive technologies. Indeed, the use of eggs from aborted babies has already been debated in this country and for good reason their use in Britain for reproductive purposes was outlawed in 1994.

“The call to harvest eggs from this source shows no respect and a complete disregard for the dignity of those foetuses who have been aborted and those children who would be born as a result of their use. The aborted foetus is treated as a piece of scientific material to be plundered for the use of others while the welfare of the child who would be born from the aborted foetus’ eggs is discarded in the name of catering for the parents’ so-called “right” to have children. The psychological damage of knowing that your mother was an aborted foetus would be massive”.

Mrs Dalrymple continued “In spite of the use of eggs from aborted babies being illegal in this country we must not be complacent. Reproductive science has become truly global and is continually pushing the boundaries of morality. Fertility clinics in Britain are already permitted to offer couples free IVF treatment in exchange for the donation of eggs for use by other women. This has been justified by the shortage of eggs for fertility treatment; how much longer before we see renewed calls for the use of eggs from aborted foetuses?”

She concluded “The use of reproductive technologies opens up an ethical and moral minefield and these new challenges remind us of the dangers of using science because we can, never asking the question of whether we should. SPUC Scotland calls for the law and for science to respect the value and dignity of human life at every stage and to reject the use of any technology that seeks to erode or undermine that respect”.

Jacqueline Dalrymple 1 July 2003

27 June 2003

CALLS FOR HOME ABORTIONS ARE DANGEROUS AND INSENSITIVE

Scotland’s leading pro-life organisation, SPUC Scotland, is rejecting calls for women to be allowed to have medical abortions at home, likening the proposals to the backstreet abortions of the fifties and sixties.

The BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service) is proposing that women be allowed to have medical abortions at home, without medical care and supervision.

SPUC Scotland has strongly opposed the plans on the basis that it poses a serious threat to women’s health.

Jacqueline Dalrymple, SPUC Scotland’s Education Officer, said: “We were told that the reasoning behind the 1967 Abortion Act was to end the practice of back-street abortions, essentially abortions taking place in women’s homes under unsafe conditions. Thirty five years on we are now being told that abortion should be put back into women’s homes; we are extremely concerned about the threat this poses to women’s health.”

BPAS compares a medical abortion with an early natural miscarriage. BPAS justifies the call for abortions being allowed to take place at home on the basis that women experiencing early natural miscarriages “are not confined to hospital”.

However Exelgyn, the manufacturers of Mifegyne, the mifepristone drug, states that in relation to the second (prostaglandin) drug:

“There is a risk of profound hypo-tension, related to the administration of prostaglandin, occurring during this period. Hence, the patient must be observed in the treatment centre for at least 6 hours or until any bleeding or pain have diminished to an acceptable level, whichever is the longer. It is imperative that suitably experienced medical personnel and resuscitation equipment are available during this period”1.

Mrs Dalrymple continued “For the RCOG (Royal College of Gynaecologists) to state that aborting at home would be both safe and desirable for women is beyond belief.

“Under current practices, women may abort alone and at home as the Mifegyne drug is between 60 and 80% effective on its own. This is an appalling and distressing ordeal for the woman as she is required to hold on to anything that may come away during this period, including the tiny but recognisable foetus, to return to the hospital to determine if the abortion is complete.

Mrs Dalrymple continued: “To suggest that a staffed help-line would suffice for the care of women undergoing this procedure is both callous and insensitive. These proposals are about cost-cutting and time saving for abortion providers, they do not have the interests and care of women at heart”.

1. Exelgyn Laboratories, Product Characteristics for Mifegyne, June 1999

Jacqueline Dalrymple 27 June 2003

10 April 2003

MEPs SUPPORT LIFE IN MOVE TO BAN ALL HUMAN CLONING

Scotland’s leading pro-life organisation, SPUC Scotland, has warmly welcomed a vote in the European Parliament last night (Thursday 9 April) today to ban destructive research on human embryos.

Meeting in Strasbourg, MEPs in Strasbourg voted in favour of a proposed directive aimed at banning all human cloning, both for reproductive and
so-called therapeutic purposes. The directive would also restrict any research which involves the destruction of surplus IVF embryos.

SPUC Scotland is applauding the vote, but insists that vital research into diseases such as Alzhiemers will not be hampered by any ban.

SPUC Scotland Director Ian Murray: “This country’s laws on
embryo research and so-called therapeutic cloning are some of the most
permissive in the world. Therefore we take great heart from the MEPs vote which clearly supports the dignity of the human embryo.

“The directive will have to be voted on again by the parliament and
also backed by national governments in order to become law. SPUC Scotland has taken this first positive step as a clear signal to scientists throughout the world that all research must conform to ethical standards and fundamental moral principles.

“This is the third time in as many years that MEPs have signalled
their rejection of cloning for experimental purposes, and again today
they have acted to isolate Tony Blair’s government, whose support for
destructive research on cloned embryos is unique in Europe and makes
Britain a pariah state on the issue”.

Ian Murray continued: “We would staunchly contest the claim that research into Alzheimers and other diseases would be stopped by this report.

“In reality, ethical alternatives such as adult stem cell technology have consistently demonstrated greater therapeutic potential and
promise than those derived from embryos. We would hope that medical research will now proceed by more ethical, and indeed more effective means.”

So-called therapeutic cloning creates cloned human embryos with the purpose of extracting their stem cells for research. In every instance, the clone (a human embryo) is destroyed in the process.

Up to half a million embryos have been used and destroyed through embryo research since 1990. Embryos used in such research are often ‘left over’ from IVF treatment, while others are engineered specifically for the purpose.

Helen Tochel 10 April 2003

9 April 2003

PAVING THE WAY FOR 'DESIGNER BABIES'

SPUC Scotland expresses regret at the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the case of Zain Hashmi, which will allow his parents to create and select an embryo which will hopefully provide a stem cell transplant for Zain who has the rare blood disorder thalasseamia major.

Jacqueline Dalrymple Education Officer commented “While we have tremendous sympathy for the family and for Zain’s suffering at no point in this case has consideration been given to the lives of the embryos which will be created and destroyed through the use of this process. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is performed on the pretext that it will prevent genetic disease however it is clear that this technique rather than preventing disease prevents embryos that have genetic disease from being born, added to this in the Hashmi case we are indeed entering the territory of designer babies”.

PGD has up until now allowed parents to select embryos in order to avoid bearing children with genetic or sex-related diseases. The Hashmi ruling will now open the way for parents to select children based on tissue type in order to supply transplants for siblings with particular diseases. Jacqueline continued, “Allowing the extension of the use of PGD in this way shows no consideration for the life of the eventual child required to provide a transplant for his/her sibling. This child is treated as the means to another’s ends rather than being afforded the respect and dignity due to all human beings as valuable individuals in themselves. The Hashmi’s argue that any child that is born will be wanted and loved and I am sure this is true, what is also true however is that those embryos that do not meet the requirements are not wanted and so are discarded, the love for the child that is born is therefore, on one level, conditional.

“We believe that such techniques as IVF and PGD cannot avoid huge ethical and moral questions that so far have been put aside in the name of what science can therefore should do. The HFEA itself in its consultation document on the use of sex selection said that ‘Doing something for a medical reason is not the same thing as having a good medical reason to do it’. SPUC Scotland believes that the way forward should be investing in techniques that are ethically and morally sound and which do not sacrifice the lives of many human embryos. The Thalassaemia Society itself has stated that there are 800 people in Britain with the same disorder as Zain Hashmi. How many embryos would have to be sacrificed in order to treat all 800 sufferers? The Society also state that many sufferers live into their 30s and 40s and that with medical advances more effective treatments may become available in the future. We urge science to invest in these ethical and more effective treatments”.

Jacqueline Dalrymple 9 April 2003

12 March 2003

THE TRAGIC TRUTH BEHIND COMIC RELIEF

SPUC Scotland, the country’s leading pro-life lobbying group is calling for a boycott of the widely publicised Comic Relief campaign.

It’s been revealed that Comic Relief grants are continuing to be used to promote abortions on a global scale, despite assurances from organisers to the contrary.

Comic Relief’s own grants supplement shows that between July 2000 and June 2001 they donated £24,000 to Population Concern, whose projects include campaigning for the implementation of abortion laws in Bolivia and similar work in Nigeria and Peru.

Their work also includes the promotion of abortion on demand in such countries.

During the same period Comic Relief donated £164,000 to the women’s rights group One World Action, which has funded workshops on abortion in Nicaragua.

SPUC Scotland Director Ian Murray says Comic Relief is fudging the facts: “Comic Relief has responded to our findings by stating they have never paid for an actual abortion procedure, but this is nothing more than a smokescreen.

“The evidence is clear that substantial amounts of money is being given to organisations who actively promote and provide abortions.

“I would ask people not to become blindly caught up in activities which ultimately lead to encouraging abortions. Think hard about where your money is going and make a conscious decision to ensure it reaches charities which have respect for all human life.

“I would particularly urge young people, who may be caught up in the flurry of excitement surrounding Red Nose Day to look beyond the publicity machine and take the mature decision, rather than just going with the flow.”

Population Concern’s chairperson Dilys Cossey is a veteran abortion rights campaigner, who has been previously associated with abortion referral agency Brook Advisory Centres, which has also received funding from Comic Relief

Helen Tochel 12 March 2003

7 March 2003

URGENT WARNING OVER CONTROVERSIAL ‘PAY AND GO’ FERTILITY CLINIC FOR GLASGOW

The first fertility clinic in Scotland to sell sperm to lesbian couples and single women is wholly unethical and potentially dangerous to women and children.

As the country’s leading pro-life lobbying group, SPUC Scotland is warning women against using the clinic because of its consumerist approach to human life and the high risks of both mother and child becoming infected with STDs such as HIV.

The Clinic, which is called Man Not Included, is being launched in Glasgow tomorrow (8 March 2003). Clients are to be charged around £1000 for a treatment which includes three donations, which are then delivered to their own home along with an insemination kit.

Prospective mothers are encouraged to select a genetic profile which is to their liking, including hair and eye colour, height and weight and even IQ and personality.

SPUC Scotland Director Ian Murray has grave concerns: “Conceiving a child is not like ordering fast-food- pay your money and it’s delivered fresh to your door.

“This business further reinforces the view that children are commodities which can be bought and sold according to our own desires. I am most concerned that this clinic is making a profit from these unethical practices.

“The Man Not Included clinic will be creating designer babies according to these women’s specifications. Human life should not be decided on the basis of who can and cannot afford it. Furthermore this is a highly irresponsible venture which is leaving women and children exposed to infections from donors, including HIV and other STDs.”

Tests for HIV are usually repeated six months after donation to ensure that sperm is disease-free. Man Not Included cannot give such a guarantee as they are not licensed by the HFEA to store sperm, which would allow them time to complete the screening process.

While Man Not Included insists that all donors and prospective mothers will be met by a member of staff at some point throughout the process, the Glasgow clinic will be open only two days per week, allowing most business including payments to be made online.

Helen Tochel 7 March 2003

30 January 2003

TEENAGE PREGNANCY STRATEGY FAILING

SPUC Scotland has branded the Scottish Executive’s teenage pregnancy strategy as a failure. Commenting on official figures for 2001 published today SPUC Scotland’s Director, Ian Murray, said “While we welcome the small decrease in the numbers of underage conceptions what is of particular concern is the increase in the percentage of teenage pregnancies that end in abortion. This is something that has to be addressed.

“The figures show that the Executive’s current strategy on teenage pregnancies is completely misguided. Current policies are aimed at increasing access to family planning services for teenagers when both the research and the figures point to socio-economic factors as the real cause of the teenage pregnancy rates. This is a vital factor that the Executive continually fails to address.

“Dr David Paton Head of Economics at Nottingham University, in a recent research paper in the Journal of Health Economics, found that the teenage pregnancy rate was unaffected by levels of access to family planning services and instead was related to socio-economic factors, such as poverty.

“The new figures reinforce this showing that the lowest teenage pregnancy rate is recorded in East Dunbartonshire, a local authority covering areas such as Milngavie and Bearsden, whilst the highest rate of teenage pregnancy continues to be Dundee City.

“Another recent study of pregnant teenagers found that 71% had discussed contraception with a health professional in the year before they got pregnant and 50% had been prescribed oral contraceptives.

“Only when the real cause of high levels of teenage pregnancy are addressed by the Executive will we see a significant fall in both the number and rate of teenage pregnancies in Scotland, until then we will continue to have the highest rate in Western Europe.”

Jacqueline Dalrymple 30 January 2003

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