Shock tactics: Special report in the Guardian

25.11.2008 Anti-abortion campaigners are being allowed into schools to present their arguments to teenagers, and are making converts. But what about the facts? Kate Hilpern reports.

The Guardian newspaper on 25 November carried a special report about anti-abortion campaigners being allowed into schools to present their arguments to teenagers. Some groups show graphic pictures of late miscarriages and aborted fetuses and give incorrect information about abortion and its risks. False claims include that abortion will lead to breast cancer and infertility, with incorrect information given about what is involved in an abortion.

Pro- choice groups believe that schools should explore issues around unintended pregnancy and how women get into the situation where they might need to consider an abortion, as well as discussing people’s different values.

Ann Furedi of BPAS is quoted saying: “From their point of view, targeting these particularly impressionable and idealistic people is seen as a tactic [by some anti-choice groups]. They are well resourced, sometimes drawing on funding from the US, and they have a real mission.” As a result, despite the small increase in the numbers of teenage women having abortions, she says “there is a growing sense among them that it’s ultimately wrong”.

Pro-choice groups believe that young people should hear anti-abortion views, but that discussion in schools must be accurate, impartial and up-to-date. Ann Furedi said, “let’s move it out of the RE room and be much more upfront about the fact that one in three women will have an abortion at some time in their lives and that basically, if you’re fertile and sexually active, you are at risk of an unwanted pregnancy.”