Today SPUC members are holding an all-day silent vigil outside the offices of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA is considering allowing abortion providers to advertise on television and radio. Sponsorship for the vigil will go towards SPUC's campaign against the ASA's proposal and to educate the public on abortion.Pete and Anne Fearon (pictured, with their children Catherine and James) of SPUC Merseyside are leading the vigil. They have been married for 25 years and have six children, including two sets of twins. Anne says:
"Bringing up children these days is hard enough without the abortion industry targeting our sons and daughters and sending out the message that casual sex and abortion are perfectly okay. That's why I'm strongly in favour of SPUC's policy of reaching out to young people in their schools and I'm hoping the money we raise at the sponsored vigil will help them expand this vital service.People wishing to sponsor the vigil can donate securely online here
"The whole family feel very strongly that allowing abortion to be advertised on TV will have a harmful effect on society in general and will lead to more unborn babies being destroyed and more women and girls suffering the after effects of abortion.
"We will do all that we can to support SPUC's campaign to stop abortion adverts invading our homes.
"We have supported SPUC for longer than we care to remember but I started going to Crosby branch meetings about 17 years ago. After a few years I found myself branch secretary and began attending Merseyside regional meetings and then SPUC's National Council meetings (the Society's governing body). I am also chairman of Merseyside region.
"Pete is a science teacher. He was head of science for many years in a large Catholic school in Liverpool before retiring last year and now does supply teaching.
"James and Catherine have just turned sixteen and are the youngest of our six children. They will have just completed their GCSE exams a couple of days before the sponsored event. As you can imagine, things are a bit tense in our household at the moment with all that last minute cramming!
"As a family we always try to support SPUC's fundraising in any way we can and this particular event is very important to us. Last year my daughter, Siobhan, took part in SPUC's sponsored skydive parachute event."
For many years a committed team of SPUC staff has provided regular pro-life news services via the SPUC website and email, and more latterly this blog, the SPUC Facebook group and now Twitter. While delivering news and comment in this way incurs a financial cost, we have made it our policy not to appeal directly to our readers to meet these costs. However, should you wish to do so, you can help support SPUC’s news services by sponsoring the vigil (see above). Appeal contributions will help defray the costs of SPUC's news services and our campaigning, education and caring work. What’s most important to us, though, is that you continue to have access to good quality information which leaves you better informed about pro-life matters. Whatever you decide to do, please consider forwarding this page to anyone you think may benefit from SPUC's news services (one way of forwarding this page is to click on the mail icon below).
