Anti-abortion bid in disarray as critics rally

MPs back compromise amendment as Nadine Dorries comes under pressure to reveal allies The campaign to toughen Britain’s abortion laws was losing momentum as Tory MPs on Friday backed a rival amendment and questions emerged about links to Christian counselling services that might benefit from the proposed reform. Legislation initially proposed by Nadine Dorries and Frank Field would strip abortion providers such as Marie Stopes of their counselling role and hand it over to “independent” organisations not linked to abortion clinics. But Dorries confirmed to the Guardian that the organisations supporting her campaign include a “crisis pregnancy centre” (CPC) – a type of advisory service often linked to religious anti-abortion activists. Dorries is coming under pressure to reveal how her allies are funded. One of the most vocal public supporters of the Right to Know campaign backing the Dorries amendment to the healthcare bill is the lobby group Christian Concern, which is linked to a wealthy US evangelical organisation, the Alliance Defence Fund. Meanwhile, political support has been ebbing away since fellow Tory MP Louise Mensch tabled a compromise amendment, which would allow women to choose whether they received counselling from faith-backed pregnancy centres or existing charities such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. The public health minister, Anne Milton, took the unprecedented step of emailing all MPs to set out the government’s voting decision. Although emphasising that the vote on the amendment would be free, she wrote: “On the issue of preventing abortion services from offering counselling, we disagree with the [Dorries] amendment. If pressed to a vote, my ministerial colleagues in the Department of Health and I will vote against the amendments. This is because the amendments exclude existing abortion services from offering counselling.” Conservative MPs were shocked by the letter, saying its statement of the government’s preferred view was “unheard of” ahead of a free vote and reflected the state of coalition relations, with the Liberal Democrats “running the show”. Dorries insisted she would go ahead with her amendment to the bill, despite its waning parliamentary support. Dorries and Field want to offer women the option of independent counselling, delivered by an organisation other than the abortion provider. Dorries said she did not want it to be a religious organisation, but “one of the 36,000 BACP [British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy] professional counsellors across the country who are prohibited at present from working with pregnant women”. However, healthcare organisations and pro-choice campaigners are concerned the gap would be filled from the ranks of the hundreds of CPCs, which are often overseen by religious anti-abortion groups. Dorries confirmed that her campaign was being advised by Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship, a lobby group which says that more than 4,000 doctors are members, and “a number” of other organisations, including “one that runs crisis pregnancy centres”, but she refused to either name them or describe their role. The Dorries-Field amendment is expected to be selected by the Speaker when parliament returns from recess, and one of the first items on the parliamentary agenda is the health and social care bill on Tuesday and Wednesday. The prime minister, David Cameron, was at first said to be sympathetic to Dorries’s view that women should be offered independent advice, but he became persuaded by the view of campaigners that the planned amendment would prevent abortion providers such as Marie Stopes from giving counselling. The Department of Health has instead announced a consultation on the range of counsellors, and Lib Dems said they would be seeking to influence this. Despite Cameron withdrawing his support, on Friday Dorries insisted she would push ahead but did not appear to be gathering the support of her colleagues. Two Conservative MPs said they would be likely to support the Dorries-Field amendment, if selected by the Speaker, but they said the numbers voting in its favour would be low. However, they suggested the mood on the backbenches would be grim on account of No 10 conducting what they called a “secret whipping operation”, letting it be known that the prime minister would vote against Dorries’s amendment thereby piling pressure on his backbenchers to follow his lead and vote it down. Mensch’s amendment seeks to find a compromise by increasing the range of bodies offering advice but not ruling out Marie Stopes. She proposes giving women considering an abortion the choice of getting independent counselling on the NHS. Mensch’s amendment would allow a woman to choose a referral to any counselling service, including Marie Stopes and British Pregnancy Advisory Service – the two providers explicitly ruled out by the Dorries-Field amendment. Mensch had wanted her proposal to mean that any BACP-accredited counsellor who is an abortion provider, is a faith group or is ideological would be labelled as such, allowing women to make an informed decision, but she was unable to include that. Instead, she intends to lobby the Department of Health on this point. A Liberal Democrat MP, Julian Huppert, tabled an amendment seeking to strengthen the status quo. It read: “All organisations offering information or advice in relation to unplanned pregnancy choices must follow current evidence-based guidance produced by a professional medical organisation specified by the secretary of state.” Crisis pregnancy centres are independent of the NHS and offer counselling on pregnancy choices, and sometimes free testing and other services. Some are independently run, as charities, often with church backing, while others are part of more established networks, such as that run by Life, a charity opposed to abortion in all circumstances. The largest network – more than 100 CPCs – is run by CareConfidential. Neither Dorries nor Field, nor the Right to Know campaign – which was set up to lobby for support for the amendment – will reveal the details of who is involved with Right to Know and who has funded it. It has paid for a poll of MPs carried out by the private pollsters ComRes as part of a lobbying operation. MPs who are opposing the amendment have called on Dorries to reveal the full sources of the backing for the campaign. Luciana Berger, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said: “It’s only right that people know where the resources have come from in advance of the vote.” Abortion Conservatives Health policy Health Women Public services policy Ben Quinn Polly Curtis Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 2, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.