JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: More contraception not the answer to high levels of repeat abortions

Monday, 31 March 2014

More contraception not the answer to high levels of repeat abortions

Jane Ellison, health minister

SPUC has reacted to newly-published government statistics on repeat abortions, given in parliamentary answers by Jane Ellison, the health minister [Hansard, 26 March 2014, columns 254W to 256W]

Paul Tully, SPUC's general secretary, told the media earlier today:

"These distressing figures are significant but not for the reason people often think. The pro-abortion lobby will suggest that more stringent birth control regimes are needed to stop women becoming pregnant and incurring expensive NHS abortion costs.

Many pro-life people assume that the figures suggest abortion is being used as a method of birth control. Some women may have this view, but importantly, this view is in practice encouraged by the Department of Health – which sees abortion as 'back-stop contraception.'

As a result of these figures, ministers are likely to agree to more intensive programmes to promote contraception, both to women who have abortions, and to young people generally.

The result of this is well-recognised – it doesn't reduce abortion, but promotes attitudes and sexual behaviour which increase the likelihood of children being conceived in unstable situations. And whether wanted or not, many will be aborted.

To break this vicious cycle, doctors should refuse to sanction abortion for so-called 'unwanted” pregnancies' – which is not a lawful basis for abortion. Also, ministers should demand that the Department of Health stops promoting birth-control policies which lead to sexual abuses, the undermining of marriage and the killing of unborn babies."

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.