A youth pro-life activist group in Britain has said that they have drawn inspiration from the anti-abortion movement in the United States, despite the so-called Conservative party in large part failing to uphold traditional values.
Abortion Resistance, an upstart group of Millennials and Gen Z activists who aim to promote a culture of life in the United Kingdom, told Breitbart London that the moves to restrict abortion in the United States gives them hope for making change in Britain.
Eden McCourt, who co-founded the group, said that she was first inspired to become a pro-life activist growing up with a sister with severe disabilities, saying: “Growing up, I heard from the media, from my peers that people with disabilities like her shouldn’t have the right to life and shouldn’t be able to exist. So it was off the back of her and in her memory that I decided to take the issue more seriously.”
The director of PR and media for Abortion Resistance told Breitbart London that she has since taken inspiration from the pro-life movement in America.
“America has made a lot headway with this issue and a lot of states are putting limits on abortion and in some cases banned completely, which is great, and obviously we want to replicate that in the UK,” McCourt said.
“What we are trying to do is create a culture of life, that actually accepts the value and dignity of all human beings from the moment they first exist and of course they [America] are a great inspiration because they are doing such great work and hopefully we can do better over here.”
The federal government in America is currently headed up by the Democrat administration of Joe Biden, who, despite his professed Catholic faith, is staunchly pro-abortion. However, individual states have made significant moves to restrict abortions within their jurisdiction.
In September of last year, the state of Texas became the first in the nation to enact “heartbeat” legislation, meaning that once a fetal heartbeat can be detected within the womb of a mother, ending the pregnancy is prohibited.
Following the lead of the Lone Star State, and indeed going further, the state of Oklahoma passed a near total ban on abortion earlier this month. The law prohibits abortions in all cases with the exception to “save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.”
The Sooner state went on to make the performing of an abortion a felony that could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years and or a fine of $100,000.
This month also saw Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida sign into law legislation banning abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancies, declaring that it was “the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.”
In contrast to the moves from Republicans in the United States, the Conservative government in Britain has made access to abortion much easier. Last month, a “temporary” measure from the lockdowns to permit at home abortions was made permanent, allowing women to receive pregnancy ending drugs during the first ten weeks with nothing more than a phone call to the National Health Insurance.
Since the measure was put in place during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, some 150,000 women have had at home abortions in Britain.
Though Abortion Resistance casts itself as non-partisan, Eden McCourt noted that it is still disappointing that the Conservative party “who claim to hold traditional values, and the right to life for all human beings,” have failed to uphold such a standard “in that building over there,” she said while pointing towards Parliament.
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