Government's latest intervention in education system will harm children's welfare

Last night the House of Lords debated the Children, Schools and Families bill at second reading. The bill threatens to impose pro-abortion and anti-family sex education on all state-funded schools. As per parliamentary convention, there was no vote. The bill now awaits any further parliamentary time available.

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media this afternoon:

"The government has an appalling record on the protection of both born and unborn children. Its constant promotion of abortion, especially secret abortions on schoolgirls without parental knowledge or consent, shows the contempt in which it holds human life in the womb and the family. The Children, Schools and Families bill takes fundamental rights aways from parents and schools, and gives them instead to government bureaucrats doing the pro-abortion lobby's bidding.

"Last night the government said that 'All schools will still be under a duty to comply with the [bill's] principles regarding accuracy, balance and diversity' (Baroness Morgan). We know that the government's definition of accuracy means denying the physical and psychological damage can abortion can cause and the abortion-inducing mode of many birth control drugs and devices. The government is also in chronic denial about the failure of classroom sex education to assuage premature sexual activity and abortions among teenagers.

"We congratulate the Conservative front-bench for its opposition to the bill, for standing up for the rights of parents and schools, and for exposing the government's appalling record.* We call upon the Conservatives not to let the bill, in part or as a whole, to proceed any further in the current parliament."

* Lord Bates, speaking for the Opposition said last night:

"We have had some 30 years of believing that, if only you provide an education for people and tell them about conception and the alternatives to abortion, then, basically you would solve this problem—education is the answer in these areas. We beg to differ, because the numbers beg to differ ... If the answer was simply more education, surely the trend ought to be heading in the other direction .... Good legislation recognises the importance of the parent in the raising of their children, which places an emphasis on morality and on character, which trusts parents and school governors ... [A]llowing parents, teachers and governing bodies to interpret that in their own setting would seem to be the best way forward."

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