Scottish Abortion Lobbies Attack Pregnancy Support
20.01.2023
Stanton Healthcare Edinburgh (SHE) opened a pregnancy support clinic in the city of Edinburgh last February, aiming to provide women “with accurate information to support them through pregnancy”. It offers private and confidential counselling, a scan, and free support during the pregnancy, but does not offer or refer for abortion. It was granted charitable status by Scotland’s charity regulator last year amid anger from pro-choice groups, which continue to demand that it should be deprived of this important status.
The pro-abortion lobbies immediately accused SHE of being American and “anti-abortion”, of offering misleading information about the risks to mental and physical health following an abortion, and using scare tactics to frighten women.
Paul Atkin, a SHE director, has been promoting the centre in his role as pro-life officer for the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh. In 2019 the Archdiocese opened a dedicated office to promote the pro-life message, noting that the rate of abortion in the deprived areas were twice as high as those among the better-off in the East of Scotland.
“We don’t offer or recommend abortion, we are a pregnancy support service providing alternatives”, Atkin said. “SHE provides that support free of charge and we’d encourage women to find out all the alternatives and make a fully informed decision.” He confirmed that ultrasound scans would be among services offered but rejected claims that they can exert undue psychological pressure on women to dissuade them from having an abortion. He pointed out that ultrasound scans provided an accurate “window to the womb”, so that mothers could check the health and development of their baby, and added that there were no plans to offer “abortion pill reversal”.
The National Secular Society joined the pro-aborts, expressing the usual accusations “that a charity with such a questionable track record on advising pregnant women is opening a branch in Edinburgh. Charities have a duty to provide a public benefit. Pushing misleading healthcare information based on religious ideology should not be considered as fulfilling this duty.”
Donna Cameron, executive director of the new service, said: “Pregnancy is often unexpected and mums may feel alone or uncertain. We will listen to women’s hopes and fears, and offer an individual support package to help them through pregnancy and beyond. Our service is free, private and confidential.”
Atkin said the centre had already helped women such as Kasia, 29, a refugee from Mykolaiv in Ukraine. “It was a little bit stressful being pregnant, with my husband still in Ukraine”, she said. “Stanton helped me with essential things that I would need for the baby as well as items I would need for myself.”
It is black or white. There is no agreed information or middle position on abortion in Scotland or anywhere else. Pro-aborts, whether doctors or not, deny that abortion carries risks, and, should a woman suffer after it, blame her previous mental health rather than abortion itself. They oppose the use of scans, alleging that they cause alarm for pregnant women. And they resolutely avoid replying to the key question: What happens in an abortion? Videos of the life of an unborn human are treated as propaganda, misleading if not actual false.