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Talk a Woman out of Abortion in the UK? Two Years Jail
LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/26/08 | Hilary White

Posted on 08/26/2008 4:17:48 PM PDT by wagglebee

LONDON, August 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Crisis pregnancy centres, as well as doctors, nurses and midwives, may be subject to prosecution and a two-year jail sentence if they convince a woman to forego an abortion. Under a proposed amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, those groups advertising services to pregnant women who provide "false information" or even information that is "factually correct" that convinces a woman to change her mind about abortion, will have committed an offense.

Tabled by one of David Cameron's Tory MPs, John Bercow, the amendment says, "It shall be an offence to deliberately mislead through advertising in relation to the termination of pregnancy and alternatives thereto." Bercow has recently gone on record in support of an effort to bring explicit "sex-education" to six-year-old children in mandatory school curriculums.

The amendment continues, "Any person, association or body corporate shall be guilty of an offence" if they provide "material which ... contains false information and is untruthful ... or in its overall presentation deceives or is in any way likely to deceive the average person...even if the information is factually correct".

An offense will have been committed if the information given "causes or is likely to cause the average pregnant woman to take a decision in relation to the termination of her pregnancy she would not have taken otherwise."

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said that while no one could argue against a law prohibiting false advertising, the amendment is a targeted blow against the pro-life movement in Britain. SPUC believes it may specifically be a backlash against their information pamphlet "Abortion - Your Right to Know" which "several hundred GPs now carry in their surgeries".

Groups that may be affected include the Good Counsel Network, a London women's centre that advertises in the same places as the abortionists and pray for many "clients" to come to them. Another is a small group of sisters, the Sisters of the Gospel of Life, founded in the diocese of Glasgow in 1997 by the late Cardinal Winning, who provide a range of services for women in unexpected pregnancies.

Among the most familiar tactics of the abortion lobby is the accusation that crisis pregnancy centres (CPC) "lure" in pregnant women with false or misleading information refuting the assertion that an unborn child is nothing more than a "blob of cells" or "tissue". Planned Parenthood's Teenwire website says, "It's common for CPCs to use misleading films, ultrasound pictures, and written materials to scare and emotionally manipulate women into continuing their pregnancies."

"By presenting women with false information about abortion and the development of the fetus, CPCs threaten women's abilities to make informed choices."

John Smeaton, director of SPUC, responded saying, "It is ironic to see pro-life organisations being accused of inaccuracy by an organisation which claims on its website that the unborn child does not become a baby until birth." Smeaton warns that it is the word "lured" that is "most insidious, implying criminal activity, manipulation and entirely sinister motives."

In a briefing on the HFE bill, SPUC says that Bercow's amendment may be aimed at the Brighton counselling centre that advertises abortion counselling, but doesn't provide abortion, and "may be costing trade" for BPAS, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, one of Britain's largest government-funded abortionist groups.

SPUC points out that the amendment cuts both ways, with abortionist groups such as BPAS charging either the public or the NHS for their "services". "In terms of termination of pregnancy services, women should also be informed if a counselling service has a financial interest in providing pregnancy termination services.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: abortion; moralabsolutes; prolife; tyranny
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To: wagglebee

I’m speechless... Committing a CRIME by convincing a woman not to kill her child? Just another case of the following verse from the Bible having very real examples in our world today:

Isaiah 5:20 -
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.


21 posted on 08/26/2008 5:09:02 PM PDT by LibertyRocks (BLOG: http://libertyrocks.wordpress.com ~ Anti-Obama Gear: http://cafepress.com/NO_ObamaBiden08)
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To: Southack

They talk about that in the article - that showing an ultrasound would fall along the same lines if that ultrasound makes the woman change her mind...

I just can’t fathom what kind of a person came up with this law in the first place. What kind of sick human being must you be to see a crime in helping someone NOT to commit a MURDER!?!?


22 posted on 08/26/2008 5:12:35 PM PDT by LibertyRocks (BLOG: http://libertyrocks.wordpress.com ~ Anti-Obama Gear: http://cafepress.com/NO_ObamaBiden08)
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To: LibertyRocks
even more is this part....Tabled by one of David Cameron's Tory MPs, John Bercow

Remind me again what conservatives stand for?

23 posted on 08/26/2008 5:16:36 PM PDT by xp38
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To: wagglebee

“...is in any way likely to deceive the average person...”

Talk about an open ended law... Geez. How could anybody support wording like that?


24 posted on 08/26/2008 5:17:30 PM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: wagglebee

WTF?

More crazy people!


25 posted on 08/26/2008 5:19:01 PM PDT by sig229 (The loonie left "FLUNKED" human nature 101)
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To: wagglebee; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

26 posted on 08/26/2008 5:19:54 PM PDT by narses (...the spirit of Trent is abroad once more.)
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To: wagglebee

Seems to me, as worded, that that particular law could be used to convict anyone trying to convince a girl to have an abortion. Very few abortion businesses tell anything resembling the truth to their prospective clients, for obvious reason.

If this should become law in England, I would hope to see every pro-life organization begin to sue every abortion mill in that country on the basis that they are providing false and misleading information in an effort to convince a pregnant girl or woman to make a decision that she would not otherwise have made.


27 posted on 08/26/2008 5:29:25 PM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: wagglebee

This is the devil himself at work.


28 posted on 08/26/2008 5:35:50 PM PDT by Faith
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To: Morgana

No, the post-abortion pictures are so graphic that they cause a form of mental denial.

What works is the other side of the coin; showing the live sonogram in full motion. It’s beautiful.

And it works. Your audience, keep in mind, is women...expectant mothers, not men. Different images work for different genders.

Men think in terms of the aftermath; women are persuaded, however, by loving, living pictures of life.


29 posted on 08/26/2008 6:31:03 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack
I believe you.

My reading of the article, I think using a sonogram other than for an abortion would be criminal.

30 posted on 08/26/2008 7:16:29 PM PDT by highpockets
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To: wagglebee
More "foreign law" that the left would love to implement in America.

Once -- not 'if', but 'once' -- the sheep vote them back into full power, it will happen. Maybe not on the Empty Suit's watch, but at some near point. Count on it.
31 posted on 08/27/2008 12:31:39 AM PDT by Category Four (Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy ... Flippancy is the best of all.)
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To: wagglebee
Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm


32 posted on 08/27/2008 3:47:16 AM PDT by 8mmMauser (Jezu ufam tobie...Jesus I trust in Thee)
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To: wagglebee

SO MUCH FOR BEING IN AN INFORMATION ERA.

Thanks for posting this....what a horror.


33 posted on 08/27/2008 8:16:07 PM PDT by fishhound
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