In this blog, Louise McCudden, Head of External Affairs at MSI UK, examines recent efforts by US-based anti-abortion groups to influence reproductive rights in the UK — despite the country’s clear pro-choice majority. How can we stand united against the anti-choice movement’s ongoing attempts to undermine the hard-won reproductive rights of people in the UK?
Recently, the New York Times reported that anti-abortion groups based in the United States are attempting to influence reproductive rights in the UK.
For several years, pro-choice groups have warned that US based campaigners hope to negatively influence abortion rights in the UK. Amnesty International reported similar findings earlier this year. They found a 46% increase in so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centres (centres which pose as a supportive resource or abortion clinic, but which are run by anti-abortion groups). Since the re-election of Donald Trump as US President, anti-abortion groups seem to feel emboldened by having vocally anti-choice politicians in the White House.
We cannot be complacent about their potential to roll back reproductive rights in the UK. But there are reasons to be optimistic about our ability to fight back.
A pro-choice country
Most people in the UK are pro-choice. In recent years, we have seen major steps forward on reproductive rights. MPs across all major parties have repeatedly voted for abortion law reform, the continuation of at-home abortion care, and Safe Access Zones (buffer zones) to protect clinics from harassment.
It’s true that we have also had to fight back against attempts to chip away at abortion rights, with amendments from anti-abortion MPs, and misleading claims about abortion care, but so far, these attempts to roll back our rights have all been defeated.
Extreme minority
Right now, an important milestone for reproductive rights in England and Wales, in the form of an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, is making its way through the UK Parliament. In June, MPs voted to stop prosecuting people who end their own pregnancies. In October, this legislation moved through Second Reading in the House of Lords. Once passed into law, this moderate but significant reform will mean that no-one in England and Wales can be prosecuted for ending their own pregnancy, without changing any other aspect of how people access care. In Scotland, leading voices in reproductive health are exploring similar reforms. In Northern Ireland, abortion was decriminalised in 2019.
Women who have faced criminal investigation in recent years include domestic abuse survivors, potential trafficking survivors, and women who have experienced miscarriages and stillbirths. Arguing that these are women who should be threatened with prison is a tough sell, even for a globally coordinated movement with millions of pounds pumped in each year.
The only way that anti-abortion groups can make themselves appear credible in most of the UK is by concealing their true motives and goals. It’s no surprise that they try to avoid admitting they oppose all abortion. Only 3% of people agree with them.
Instead, they claim to care about free speech (even though the anti-abortion movement fights to restrict what doctors can say to women in lower income countries). They claim to be concerned about women’s health and safety (despite arguing for policies that deny women life-saving healthcare). They claim that reducing the time limit should be up for debate (when all reputable bodies like the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists consider that firmly settled). And in the UK, they attack LGBTQ+ rights, especially transgender rights, hoping it will divide their opponents.
Solidarity and Unity
We can beat these tactics, but we must stand together. We must be mindful that innocent-sounding questions about debating time limits or reviewing at-home abortion care are motivated by an anti-abortion agenda. No one else is asking these questions because there is no evidence behind them. They are ideological questions, without logical, ethical, or legal merit, designed to undermine the UK’s democratic pro-choice consensus through insinuation, stigma, and misinformation.
We must be prepared for the anti-choice movement to ramp up its tactics while not becoming defeatist. As extremism grows in the US and in Europe, including the UK, it will only become more vital that we take on our opponents directly, and together.
Reproductive rights do not exist in isolation and neither do our opponents. But there are more people who back abortion rights than people who oppose them. Let’s make sure that doesn’t change.
