UK: Undercover documentary about the UK anti abortion movement

Channel 4’s Dispatches programme will this week report on the UK anti abortion movement.  An undercover operation reveals that in London, some health authorities are referring women to a Catholic pro-life group, the Good Counsel Network, who claim that having an abortion can lead to cancer and other physical and mental health issues.

The Good Counsel Network often make a physical presence outside abortions clinics showing women life size plastic foetuses.   The network give out leaflets describing physical and mental health issues if you have an abortion.  Women reported that they felt harassed.

The programme will reveal that one of the biggest NHS mental health Trusts, South West London and St. Georges, have been recommending patients to the Good Counsel Network for over five years.

The Good Counsel Network says they are ‘mediating the mission of motherhood’ and ‘striving to protect women and children against abortion’.  Their homepage says “The Good Counsel Network recognises that there is not a proven link between abortion and breast cancer. However we do not hide the face that well over 50 medical studies have suggested a possible link. We are not medical advisors and therefore share with women the information about these studies AS WELL AS the information that there is no proven link.”

Consultant gynaecologist Dr Kate Guthrie said: ‘There is no evidence that links abortion with an increase in breast cancer under any circumstances.  It’s very damaging, because if you’re given incorrect information, you are making a choice based on error, not on truth. There’s no excuse whatsoever not to give people true information.’

The Good Counsel Network was formally called the Central London Women’s Centre.  They had two complaints upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority over misleading internet advertising after they did not reveal themselves as an anti abortion organisation.  A headline read: ‘Considering abortion? For an immediate appointment… call us.’

The Daily Mail reported that ‘At least 11 people have been murdered at US abortion clinics since 1990, and there have been scores of bombings and arson attacks.’  There are worries that this could happen in the UK.

The Dispatches programme will be presented by Cathy Newman, who speaks about her trauma from having an abortion and how the pressure on women is getting worse in the Mail on Sunday.

Cathy said “We went for a scan at 13 weeks, we were told the baby had an extremely rare condition which meant it was highly likely to die before birth, or during labour. If it had survived, we were informed it would most probably be paralysed, deaf, blind and unable to speak.”

“All these years later, I can remember the desolation we both felt – and the conviction we shared that the kindest course of action was to terminate the pregnancy.”  She says that many doctors were unwilling to sign abortion forms because of the “wrath” of the growing anti-abortion movement.

Cathy reflected that her decision would have been far harder “if I’d had to run the gauntlet of protesters, questioning my decision, issuing me with misleading advice about the medical risks of terminating, showing me gruesome pictures of aborted foetuses, or comparing abortion to the Holocaust.”

Dispatches Undercover: Britain’s Abortion Extremists will be screened on Channel 4 at 11pm on Wednesday 5th October. 

Image credit – www.torchofthefaith.com