Parliament to vote on pre-abortion counselling

Houses of Parliament

Parliament will be voting Wednesday afternoon on a change to abortion laws proposed by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, which would offer independent counselling to women considering having an abortion. Currently women are offered counselling by the same services that provides abortions.

Archbishop Peter Smith Chairman, Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship commented: "Abortion is always a tragedy, and our society badly needs to foster a new understanding and approach to relationships, responsibility and mutual support if lasting change is to take place. It is not clear from the evidence what impact pre-abortion counselling in fact has, but it should be independent of abortion providers, properly resourced and allow alternatives to abortion to be fully explored."

LIFE National Chairman, Professor Jack Scarisbrick, says the debate about whether pre-abortion counselling should be provided by independent agencies or by abortion providers is “bedevilled by a fundamental misunderstanding about what constitutes counselling.”

The founder of the pro-life charity, said: “Marie Stopes and BPAS do not, as they claim, provide pre-abortion counselling. Counselling is not advice or information. Rather, it provides a safe space away from outside pressures for the woman to explore her true feelings and arrive at her own decision.

“Marie Stopes and BPAS have a financial interest in every abortion they provide. Any counselling which they provided would be ideologically-driven: they strongly support a woman's ‘right' to abortion. The challenge to them would be to set those two considerations aside, as true counselling demands.

“LIFE has no financial interest in the outcome of our counselling service. Of course, we are pro-life and our work is ideologically-driven too. There is little point in an organisation's existence if it is not value-driven. But our professional, trained counsellors set aside their ‘ideology' in order to empathise unreservedly with the client.

“All pre-abortion counselling, therefore, should be the same, whether provided through Marie Stopes, BPAS, Care Confidential or LIFE - otherwise it isn't counselling. It is essential that we all - pro-life and pro-abortion - are mindful of the values that drive us and not deny their existence. Only then can we discuss pre-abortion counselling in any meaningful way.”