14-05-2025
'What they want is your rights': What you need to know about the anti-abortion movement's new tactics
Little-known fact: abortion is technically a criminal offence in England and Wales, governed by a law from 1861, before women got the right to vote.
As powerful anti-choice groups seek to roll back reproductive rights here - as we've seen in the US and Europe - we've joined forces with BPAS, the UK's leading abortion care service, on new campaign End 1861, to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales.
Head here to take action to raise your voice for choice and fight for bodily autonomy.
It's easy to think that wouldn't happen here. That we're not the US, and their policies do not impact us. But while the UK is overwhelmingly pro-choice (in a 2023 YouGov 87% of Britons said that abortion should absolutely be allowed) it doesn't mean we're safe from manipulative tactics from incredibly powerful (and rich) anti-choice groups.
As author and podcaster Deborah Frances-White discovered through a range of interviews, there are powerful forces at play, working hard and strategically behind the scenes, to take your rights away – and they're not just going for abortion, but and the right to contraception, too. They're using distraction tactics and ancient laws to get their way… and they're succeeding.
It's scary. But it's also why we all need to come together and fight back, and why Deborah is supporting , in collaboration with BPAS. Here, in an extract from her new book , she outlines what she's learned and what we need to do about it…
You will know that in the US, Roe v. Wade, the ruling that guaranteed the right to an abortion, was overturned in 2022. This means that in many states abortion access is now limited and, in some, illegal. What you may not know is that the religious far-right have also been getting organised and strategic right here, specifically targeting the UK and Europe, with the mission of diminishing and eventually eradicating abortion rights.
I interviewed Neil Datta, the Executive Director of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, a pan-European network which brings together legislators from all democratic parties to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Forum focuses on access to contraception, abortion rights, reducing maternal deaths, improving cervical cancer treatment and prevention. Because of this work, Neil has done research into religious extremists who are working to undermine women's rights to healthcare.
He explained that there were well-known 'pro-life' groups who started out picketing abortion clinics. Then in 2013, they 'rebranded' and expanded their remit:
'They invested time in hiring lawyers and political scientists so that they understand how power works. And we saw them gradually, between 2013 and 2018, really develop that skill so that they were able to write draft laws and bills, they were able to initiate proceedings in front of national and European-level courts, and they were able to start petitions, which then provoke a certain reaction from public authorities, such as a referendum . . .
They style themselves as NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and think tanks, or in some cases political parties. In Europe, they usually mask their religious ties. But when you scratch beneath the surface, you see religious connections in almost all of them.
We also have a number of organisations coming from the United States, from the US Christian right, setting up permanent offices in different European countries and specifically certain cities, such as Brussels, Geneva, Strasbourg, Vienna, and London.
These are all the centres of decision-making power. They decided to organise, get pragmatic and, crucially, harness the tools of influencing empathy to get what they want. And what they want is your rights. These organisations make up what is known as the 'anti-gender movement'. Gender here is shorthand for 'women's issues'.'This anti-gender - or anti-'women's issues' - movement is also against LGBTQ+ rights, including equal marriage. There are numerous academic studies and symposiums on the anti-gender movement and reports show the groups within it have spent $78 million (US), that we know of, in the last decade. They have decided to get what they can now, with the aim of getting what they want eventually.
Are their efforts working? Shockingly, yes. We have seen the huge uptick in women being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending their pregnancy. Abortion provider MSI says it knows of up to sixty criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before.
In contrast, between 1861 and November 2022, just three women in Great Britain were convicted of an illegal abortion. Since December 2022 (at the time of writing), one woman has been convicted and six women are awaiting trial. Also, at the time of writing, there are three new bills in the House of Lords that would potentially restrict women's ability to have legal abortions in the UK. By comparison, the last anti-abortion bill presented to the Commons was in 1990.
Dr Jonathan Lord, co-chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, has warned that police are seizing women's phones, searching for period apps and combing through their internet history. Health care providers are reporting that police are also testing 'distressed' women, who have suffered miscarriages, for abortion drugs. Some have called an ambulance for late-stage pregnancy loss and the police have arrived first.
Those anti-abortion campaigners who were previously just using anger, have now learned to use seemingly rational and empathetic techniques to influence our policymakers and those working in our communities.
If all this sounds to you like a flashback scene in The Handmaid's Tale, then you'll be as worried as I am about how organised and well-funded this 'anti-gender' far-right religious movement is. Those of us who are pro-choice need to get equally (if not more) organised to properly decriminalise abortion in the UK, the way France has responded to the anti-gender movement by enshrining the right to abortion into the constitution. We can't just ignore these people, or block them out. If we do they will organise. They will galvanise. And we will end up living in their world.
We have to get savvy, and get sorted, and that will mean compromise. Remember, ten years ago, the people now challenging our right to choose were shouting outside abortion clinics with homemade signs. Now, they've become influential by having conversations they didn't want to have and working with people they don't agree with – and they're getting things done. Things we need undone as soon as possible. If we do not organise, strategize, upskill, rethink and make connections with people we don't wholly agree with, we may find ourselves – and our human rights – hurtling back into the past.
Agenda Europa was created in January 2013 out of a meeting that took place in London involving approximately twenty North American and European anti-abortion leaders and strategic advisors who aimed to 'develop a Christian-inspired European think tank' and 'devise new strategies for European anti-abortion movements'. Why 2013? Because both the UK and France were in the process of legalising same-sex marriage and that was the breaking point.
The anti-gender movement's decision to act was born out of fury, but their focus was achievable goals. They started to ask not 'what do we want?' but 'what can we have?' Once we allow the anti-gender lobby to shape our policy and become people of influence in our society, they will use that position to get the other things on their agenda.
Documents have been uncovered that reveal a detailed, extremist strategy called 'Restoring the Natural Order: an Agenda for Europe', which seeks to overturn existing laws on basic human rights related to sexuality and reproduction, such as the right to divorce; for a woman to access contraception, assisted reproduction technologies or have an abortion; equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex (LGBTI) persons; and the right to change one's gender or sex without fear of legal repercussions.
The latest High Court ruling, which says the legal definition of a woman for the purposes of the Equalities Act 2010 is based on biological sex, is a worrying sign that they are beginning to get their way.
Neil Datta and his team predict that the next issues they attack in the UK will be surrogacy and sex work because there is already some dissent in the feminist community on these things. Their arguments about the sacredness of women's bodies as far as surrogacy and sex work goes will lead neatly into abortion: 'While we're up in your uterus anyway, we've got some notes.'
The anti-gender movement is driving hard to roll back queer rights and abortion rights, and they are making small incremental gains that will turn into large strides forward if we don't get organised ourselves. We need to use our voices, start having conversations and not sleepwalk our way into their Might Also Like
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