More pro-life groups should be appointed to advise the Government on sexual health, a group of MPs have said.
The MPs also say the Government should ignore the furore coming from the pro-abortion lobby.
The eleven MPs, from across the major parties, note in an Early Day Motion that LIFE is “the first group of any kind not in favour of abortion on demand to be given such a placement”.
Balance
Other organisations on the sexual health group include pro-abortion organisations Marie Stopes International (MSI) and FPA, formerly the Family Planning Association.
The MPs add that all groups represented, apart from LIFE, “support or provide contraceptives, the morning after pill and abortions to underage children without parental knowledge or consent”.
And while the Early Day Motion notes the Department of Health said LIFE’s appointment was “made to provide balance”, it adds that “10 groups to one could not reasonably be described as providing a balance”.
The Motion, which was tabled by the Conservatives’ Fiona Bruce, goes on to say that “increasing the representation from other pro-life groups” would help to “achieve a real balance of opinion”.
Delight
Last month when LIFE’s appointment was revealed, its head of education Stuart Cowie said: “We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past.”
However BPAS, which used to be called the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, will not be on the panel after the Government decided it was “not feasible” to invite both MSI and BPAS.
Ann Furedi, the chief executive of BPAS, said her organisation was “disappointed and troubled”, both at not being included on the panel and at LIFE’s inclusion.
A Guardian columnist criticised the row over LIFE’s inclusion saying it is impossible to “call yourself ‘pro-choice’ and then bar people who do not agree with you from expressing their opposing view”.
