Lifting the curtain

While I have been querying Life's NDC policy quite strongly, I would hate it to be thought that I am not on their side.

So I have been having a look behind the scenes at Education for Choice, the people complaining about their counselling. Strangely, their Website is shy of identifying them. There is a page labeled 'Who we are' but it gives no names of any directors, trustees or staff.

However, their Website does make their biased position very clear. They proclaim:

We call for all young people to get accurate information and good quality education about abortion, and impartial support with pregnancy decision-making whoever they are, whoever they ask and wherever they go:

• Abortion is free on the NHS
• 90% of abortions take place in the first 12 weeks
• About half of pregnant teens choose to end their pregnancies
• If you have an abortion, you can still have children in the future
• Women under the age of 16 can have a confidential abortion
• Everyone has the right to confidential health services
• Abortion is safe in the UK (in fact it's safer than pregnancy and childbirth)
• There is no link between abortion and breast cancer
• 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her lifetime
• Although the pregnancy decision is the woman's young men have feelings and can also access support
• The legal time limit for abortion in the UK is 24 weeks
• If you have an abortion you can still have children in the future.

Now it may just be me, but it seems that they have a view on the kind of choice they think a pregnant young woman or girl should be making.

Then on their Help page there are links to (you guessed it) Brook, fpa, Marie Stopes, bpas and the British Association of Adopting and Fostering. I make that a ratio of 4:1:0 in favour of abortion:adoption:keeping the baby.

And we are supposed to believe that they are the right people to make any kind of objective evaluation of Life's counselling services?

Doubtless there will be a huge hue and cry, led by the Guardian on behalf of Brook and the others to vilify Life. But so far there has been not even been any evidence produced that these mystery shopping visits took place. The Guardian should perhaps look to that first.

Make no mistake, the gloves are off, and it is the pro-choice (or more accurately pro-abortion) lobby's fury that Life have a seat at the policy table that sits behind this attempt to discredit them.

Regular readers will know that I am not an uncritical friend of Life - and indeed if the 'mystery shopping' took place as described there are certainly organisational issues that need to be addressed - but this attempt to demonise and then sideline them should be firmly resisted.

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UPDATE

I have just found that EFC have 5 promotional videos on Youtube that also shed light on their approach to impartial information giving and education... Search on Educationforlife