The director of the campaign to change abortion laws in Britain is a Westminster lobbyist and a former approved Tory candidate for parliament who has called for “pro-lifers” across the world to unite against abortion in the past.
Adrian Yalland specialises in working with “politically sensitive” topics for the public affairs group Chelgate, He's also the director of the Right To Know campaign, which actively supports the parliamentary amendment by Nadine Dorries and Frank Field to force abortion providers to offer independent counselling to women seeking terminations.
Yalland was an approved Conservative party candidate until two months ago, and says his current role at Right To Know has nothing to do with his lobbying work: “What I am doing for Right to Know is completely personal, I'm not paid for it.”
He describes himself as a secular libertarian, and insists his personal views on abortion past and present are irrelevant to the current question. “I'm pro-women, full stop.” Yet Yalland is open about how he'd personally like to see abortion laws tightened in the UK, and stands mostly by comments he made nearly 15 years ago in in 1997 about “pro-lifers” where he described third trimester abortion in the US as "murder" .
“Well, what a shame that UK pro-lifers ae a little behind the times when it comes to the Net. However, our legal system is a little more civilised, as we at least have some respect for the unborn. Third Trimester murder and Partial Birth murder is still illegal over here - thank God. I think it's time for Pro-lifers all over the world to start joining together, pooling resources and funds in order to launch a concerted attack against the ridiculous notion that the sign of a civilised and mature society is the right for someone to kill their child if they so wish. Best wishes to all who work to defend our children, whether you're liberal, Conservative, athiest or religious. It's time to unite and fight for a really civilised society.”
In a post about Nadine Dorries on Iain Dale’s former website from 2007, Yalland said the rights of men in abortion cases had been ignored and criticised the abortion “industry”.
Yalland said on Thursday those comments were about third trimester abortions and should not reflect on his work with the campaign. He told Huffpost: "In principle, there is nothing I said 15 years ago that I wouldn't say now - except the use of the word murder, as that is a horrid thing to read about yourself if you have had an abortion, and I have no right to make any one feel like a murderer - although I do believe it is the ending of human life.
"There are pro-choice supporters who are saying now what they said fifteen years ago, just as I do. We disagreed then, and we disagree now on the issue of abortion, but we work together on this amendment because both pro-choice and pro-life camps at least - and at last - recognise the need to be 'pro-women.'
"This is not about preventing abortion. This is about informing women of all their options. Why is that controversial?"
Right To Know are supporting a parliamentary amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill which will remove what they argue is the "financial conflict" from abortion providers, who currently offer in-house counselling to women seeking a termination.
Explaining their case in a Huffington Post blog on Tuesday, they wrote: "At the most basic level our abortion system should contain checks and balances to enable women to fully explore their situation in a space that is designated solely for them. Experience tells us that this space doesn't exist and the system as it has evolved over the years doesn't stand up to scrutiny."
The Department of Health said on Sunday they backed independent counselling and would consult on the measure - but on Thursday Number 10 forced a u-turn after a backlash from women saying it would delay abortion and questioning who independent providers would be.
Yalland told HuffPost on Thursday he was disappointed the government would no longer support the amendment. He warned independent counselling was important “at a time when many women are pushed into doing things that are not of their choice.
"It's not even forcing women to have counselling. It is at a very base level a really uncontroversial amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill.”
Nadine Dorries MP had previously claimed that the Right to Know campaign was run by a lobbyist, whom she would not name. She told the Huffington Post on Thursday that she had never spoken to Yalland and did not recognise his name, adding "that's how little I know about Right to Know".