School Bans Anti-Abortionist Group Lovewise After 'Considerably Controversial' Presentation

School Bans Anti-Abortionist Group Over 'Controversial' Presentation

A school banned anti-abortion charity Lovewise from further visits after the group caused "considerable controversy" among students, the Huffington Post UK has learnt.

The school, which will remain anonymous, had invited the Christian charity in to speak about sex and relationships on five separate occasions between 2009 and 2010.

In a series of letters which HuffPost has seen, a member of staff from the secondary school wrote to Lovewise, which claim abortions double the risk of breast cancer, expressing their gratitude for agreeing to come in and deliver a talk.

"Thank you for your continued support of our PHSE programme," the teacher wrote. "Your input is very well received and much appreciated by both girls and staff. We shall look forward to seeing you soon."

But five months later, the same member of staff wrote another letter, which read: "It has sadly been brought to my attention that your talk has raised some considerable controversy amongst girls and their parents.

"In light of recent feedback, I will unfortunately not be able to invite you back next year.

"We must be able to give [students] the opportunity to form their own opinions."

Another teacher at the school said the sessions had "become too one-sided and dogmatic".

"There was not much time for questions at the end, and they were not sympathetic to varying viewpoints in their answers. This did not allow for balanced discussion to allow girls to form their own judgements.

"There is also an issue with them saying girls should believe their contraception statistics, not the school nurses."

Chris Box, responsible for setting up the Lovewise offices in Kent, replied to the school saying: "Far from being a religious rant the reasoned argument laid before students by Lovewise shines a light on the choices of being married.

"It is the experience of Lovewise nationally that the silent majority of students and parents would say a big "thank you" to schools for teaching their children caringly about common morality."

On Thursday, HuffPost revealed the controversial Christian charity was teaching schoolchildren 93% of rape victims who aborted a foetus regretted it and abortion led to an increased risk of suicide.

Lovewise is a member of the Sexual Relationships Education council, supported by Michael Gove, and has visited 300 schools this year alone. The charity also argues immunisation for young girls against cervical cancer is wrong and tells students Suddent Infant Death Syndrome is seven times more common in single mothers than married mothers.

Aylssa Cowell, who works at the Teenage Pregnancy Board in Newcastle, says she had to fight long and hard to stop Lovewise visiting her local schools.

"I became aware of the group in 2007 when I picked up a leaflet. Certain things really stuck out - their advice for young girls to dress appropriately so as not to tempt their partners, which I find quite offensive, as well as saying homosexuality is a sin.

"One school had very good PHSE lessons, which had always been led by the school nurse. She was horrified to hear Lovewise were going in and delivering talks during Religious Education lessons.

"The charity is run by two doctors and a head teacher so I don't see how they can hide behind any excuses of not knowing the facts."

Pavan Dhaliwal of the British Humanist Association, who provided HuffPost with the below slides, said: "Deciding whether to have an abortion can be a difficult decision, and as such, it is extremely disappointing to see Lovewise trying to scare young people out of making that decision by using misinformation in their presentations.

"It is vitally important that children get the facts about abortion and contraception, and are not provided with misinformation from groups such as Lovewise, SPUC and Life."

HuffPost has contacted Lovewise for further comment but the group has not yet replied. On Thursday, Dr Chris Richards, Lovewise's director, told us:

"We believe that young people, therefore, have a right to hear and discuss what might be positive about keeping sex for marriage and keeping their unborn child."

The following slides are from sample slideshows by Lovewise, which were available to view on its website until recently.

Lovewise slides

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