Laura Hurley2013-05-23T23:17:50-04:00Laura Hurleyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=laura-hurleyCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Laura HurleyGood old fashioned elbow grease.40 Days for Lies?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19574222012-10-12T19:00:00-04:002012-12-12T05:12:01-05:00Laura Hurleyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-hurley/40 Days for Life, and they claim to be holding 'prayer vigils' outside nine clinics and hospitals in England. The campaign seeks to 'end abortion' through prayer and boasts of clinics which it has caused to shut down in the US, and the 'lives saved' from apparently convincing women not to have abortions.
Going by the poor attendance of these vigils, and general public support for safe, legal abortion I don't think these vigils are going to change provision, certainly the tactic of intimidating clinic staff, patients, and landlords until a clinic is forced to shut down won't wash in the UK. But I am concerned about the real impact these protests may be having on the women accessing the clinics (as well as their partners and families).
The 40 Days for Life organisers claim that they are not harassing women, but merely praying. Right outside clinics and hospitals which perform abortions. Well, thank you, oh Catholic mother of mine, for digging out this handy Bible quote:
"When you pray do not be like the hypocrites; they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at street corners for everyone to see them. Truly I tell you; they have their reward already. But when you pray, go into a room by yourself, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." Matthew: Chapter 6 Verse 5
That's right, Jesus: unlikely to be a fan of standing outside abortion clinics thrusting rosary beads into some unsuspecting woman's hand whilst chanting prayers. If God is omnipresent and omniscient (thank you GCSE Religious Studies) and the simple power of prayer is sufficient to change women's minds, surely these people who oppose abortion could pray to him in their own homes, or at church, or on the bus? Clearly, their presence outside clinics is designed to have a more direct influence on those using the premises.
And this is where my main problem with the 'vigils' lies. Well, that's just it, LIES. 40 Days for Life representatives refute claims that they are shouting at women, or filming them. Whether this is true or not, for me, the real harassment comes from the misinformation that they propagate.
The leaflets 40DfL protestors have been giving out in London (I don't have information on the other locations), presumably to pregnant women in an attempt to sway them away from abortion, contain inaccurate information and rely on scare tactics to spread fear and misinformation.
Even more worrying, the leaflets signpost women to a 'crisis pregnancy centre' run by the anti-abortion Good Counsel Network. Education For Choice mystery shopped this centre and found again, that extreme misinformation was being given out, including this leaflet which claims that condoms have tiny holes which let sperm and 'AIDS' (sic) through. It's shocking stuff.
I certainly find the clinic-praying distasteful and ill-judged (especially from those who claim to want to help women facing unwanted pregnancies) but it's the lies and scare tactics of these 'counselling' sessions which I find truly 'un-Christian'.
If you want to support the counter-campaign to 40 Days for Life, please follow @40daysofchoice on Twitter and check out the daily blogs from pro-choice advocates. The campaign is raising money for Education For Choice to continue our work exposing misinformation in schools and crisis pregnancy centres.
]]>Lovewise and Abortion Myths In Schoolstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.16888192012-07-20T08:35:30-04:002012-09-19T05:12:38-04:00Laura Hurleyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-hurley/pro-choice education project I've heard just about all the myths about abortion and contraception that are out there. Abortion is safe, legal and common - a third of women in the UK undergo the procedure in their lifetime. However, Google 'abortion' and you're hit with a tidal wave of gory fetus pictures, medical misinformation and biased pronouncements on the 'evils' of ending a pregnancy. Unfortunately, some of this is making its way into schools, under the guise of 'abortion education'.
This week, The Huffington Post reported on one particular group, Lovewise, whose materials give inaccurate and misleading information about contraception and abortion.
Lovewise, alongside other groups promoting an abstinence-only, anti-abortion position formed the new, Michael Gove approved, 'SRE Council' last year. We noted then our concerns about the misinformation which was being given on Lovewise's website in their sample slides. These slides mysteriously disappeared from the website when the HuffPo exposé went up.
To be clear. Our concern is not that Lovewise are presenting a Christian perspective on abortion. Nor that they oppose legal abortion. We have written before about the difference between facts and values. What we object to is the use of misleading, biased and at times, outright false information, which is unsupported by scientific evidence. For example, slides from Lovewise's abortion presentation claim that abortion leads to infertility, doubles the risk of breast cancer and increases the risk of committing suicide seven-fold. These claims simply do not reflect scientific consensus on abortion. Groups like Lovewise are entitled to hold a particular viewpoint, but not to use misinformation about a medical procedure to promote this viewpoint to children. 'Abortion is morally wrong' is a viewpoint; 'Abortion causes breast cancer' is simply untrue.
Besides the disregard for truly evidence-based information, there is also the effect such presentations might have on children's wellbeing. How will a young woman who has experienced pregnancy feel when she is told 'there are always bad consequences' to abortion? How might a group which claims 'homosexual activity is damaging to the mind, body and spirit' affect the feelings of a young person who is LGBT? And how might young people's access to safe, confidential sexual health advice be affected by listening to an organisation which teaches that contraception is 'something that is wrong and threatens health?'
Lovewise are by no means the only group to be proffering such myths but we are glad to see that the public's attention is being drawn to the regular practice of abortion misinformation being spread in schools. Now, let's see if we can continue to push for evidence-based, impartial materials to be used in every school teaching about an issue as important as abortion.]]>