As well as lobbying sitting MPs to oppose the pro-abortion amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill, we urge people to contact prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) in their constituencies to find out how they would vote on the amendments proposed.
We don’t normally ask people to contact their PPCs until an election is approaching but this is a good way of increasing the “political temperature” on the abortion amendments. We have the opportunity to do this because many local constituency parties selected their prospective candidates last year, in the expectation of an election last October. This means we have the opportunity to approach those prospective candidates now and ask how they would vote if elected.
Bear in mind that unless your MP has announced that he/she is stepping down at the next election, only the parties “in opposition” in your constituency will have appointed a PPC.
You can Google for the party headquarters – which vary in their efficiency in providing details of prospective parliamentary candidates; or just look up the local party headquarters in your phone book.
A list of questions to put to your local candidate/s is available from SPUC here. The SPUC website has a page about this campaign here.
Contact Anthony Ozimic, SPUC’s political secretary, for advice if you need it. Please let us have information on the responses you receive. Write to political@spuc.org.uk
