“So what’s better than an abortion?”

“So what’s better than an abortion?”. Anyone who has done a few Pro-Life vigils knows that we get some very odd comments and questions, but this was one of my strangest. The man—mid-fifties, donnishly smoking a brown hand-rolled cigarette, a bit scruffy—was reading our sign. “You say that women deserve better than abortion. So what’s better than an abortion?”. It took me a moment to realize that he was serious. ‘Well,’ I answered him silently in my head, ‘I mean, quite a few things actually. Ice-cream. Sunshine. Moonlight on the Danube’. 

By now, though, I had realized what he was driving at. He meant: ‘is a women really better off if she keeps her child in difficult circumstances? What are you going to do to help her once you’ve convinced her to keep her child?’. Of course, the answer is the same: ‘well, quite a few things actually’. The man’s question, one suspects, was premised on two absurd falsehoods: that abortion itself isn’t harmful to women, and that pro-lifers don’t help mothers once they’ve had their children. His and my very curious little interaction left me with two reflections. 

First: perhaps I’m odd in this, but I find that vigil work is much easier if I hold on to my sense of humour. For sure, we must always be mindful of the great evil that is taking place before us. But we also need to remember that the things that the Enemy puts into people’s heads to say and ask are not only misleading, but absurd. He lies, and smuggles lies into the questions he asks, because lies are all he’s got. Though we must always be respectful towards the poor people that he dupes, I think that we can rally our courage if we remember later on to smile at the silliness of what they have said to us. Doing so reminds us that if the abortion lobby sometimes seems like a huge looming edifice, it’s really but a house of cards. I think that it also helps us to retain the inner joy in our witness that draws abortion-vulnerable mothers to us. 

The other, more sombre reflection is about the man’s reasoning. Aside from the fact that it is a really good excuse for not helping people—‘why should I help her to keep her baby? she can just have an abortion...’—it also reveals a sad view of life. Life is difficult, and motherhood is too, even when help is available. If abortion is really better than having a child under difficult circumstances, then none of us should be here. Already, many of us aren’t. The logic of abortion is the logic of death, which is ultimately the logic of universal hatred: hatred of God and all that he has made. 

So I suppose the moral of this story is twofold. On the one hand, we’re in a tough fight: we’re up against the Father of Lies. On the other hand, we can be positive, because at least he hasn’t got anything sensible to say.

                                                                                                           Peter Day-Milne

The 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil in Brixton will run for 12 hours a day, 8am to 8pm, seven days a week from Ash Wednesday until Palm Sunday. If you could spare an hour or more to come and pray with us, it would be of great help. The vigil takes place at the corner of Brixton Water Lane, London, SW2 5BJ. For more details or to book to attend please contact Gabriella on 07745711064 or 02077231740

To sign up for hours at the 40 Days for Life vigil in Ealing, West London contact Sarah on 07776256838, or email her at london40daysforlife@hotmail.com

For details about 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigils in Reading, Southend, Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow, Leicester, Bournemouth and Sheffield see here and for the rest of the World see here 

Parliament of Death

June 2025 will go down as a particularly dark month in the UK’s history, even by our already bleak standards. In the space of a week our parliament has voted to effectively decriminalise abortion up to birth and to allow “assisted dying”.

Decriminalisation, we were told, is to protect women from prosecution. In fact, it allows women to be coerced into abortions right up to birth, allows unscrupulous abortion providers to use whatever methods they wish and provide abortion medications with virtually no checks whatsoever, knowing that it is going to be nigh on impossible to prosecute them under the new law, if it comes in.

“Assisted Dying” is another euphemism. MPs not only voted to pass this bill but also voted for a version of it in which almost every safeguard that was proposed to protect the vulnerable has been removed. Instead of investing in proper pain relief and end of life care, Government funding could now be focussed on “helping” people to die. Euthanasia is already widely practised in our hospitals. How long before the “right” to die becomes a duty to die?

In response to these votes, the Bishop responsible for Family & Life Issues said: “This is not the end of the parliamentary process, and we should not lose hope. We ask the Catholic community to continue to pray for members of parliament whilst they consider this legislation and to pray that government will act to promote and protect life from conception until natural death.” – Bishop John Sherrington.

With your continued prayers and financial support – however dark things get - we can ensure that women like these are able to turn away from abortion because we can offer them real alternatives.

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The Guardian Attacks Peaceful Prayer Vigils But Don't Want to Speak to Mothers Helped.

With Richmond's Buffer Zone coming into effect on 1st April, we have enough to think about. However, it is 40 Days season and the usual bloodhounds come sniffing to the door looking to make up any kind of a story out of any dead twigs they can root up.
I got this email from Guardian journalist Simon Murphy yesterday. I have not replied since his "story" was already written, and he declined my offer to speak to any of the Mothers helped by our vigils. You can hear from the Mothers we have helped here .The Guardian have a poor record themselves in showing consideration for Mothers entering abortion centres, see our post here .
The leaflet below which is not a Good Counsel Leaflet, but which is given out around the country by different groups is the main source of Mr Murphy's discontent. Claiming that including a quote from a woman who found her abortion more difficult to deal with than rape is offensive or is a "tactic". Perhaps he is suggesting this woman should not feel that way, or maybe only that she should not be allowed to share how her experience affected her? I thought it was all about trusting women? But only the right women it seems!
Then the journalist's email below the leaflet gives you a bit of insight into the mindset of these journalists. I will let you be the judge of his article!

Sent: 03 April 2019 16:02
To: Good Counsel Network
Subject: Guardian story -- request for comment

Dear Clare,

As discussed, we intend to publish a story in the Guardian about how anti-abortion protesters have been accused of harassing vulnerable women visiting clinics as they ramp up demonstrations during Lent including handing out leaflets suggesting that a termination is harder to deal with than being raped. 

The Guardian has discovered a series of tactics deployed by anti-abortion protesters, some of whom have been participating in the 40 Days for Life campaign,  as they step up demonstrations in ten locations across the UK the run up to Easter by picketing clinics for up to 12 hours a day. 

 

As part of the story we will be detailing how leaflets are being handed out during Lent by activists in Birmingham and Leicester, laden with graphic images of foetuses, which imply that rape is easier to overcome than having a termination – as well as suggesting women who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide. The leaflets provide contact details for a woman called “Isabel” at the Good Counsel Network.

The contact details on the leaflet also match those of an organiser listed on 40 days for life’s Birmingham campaign. The leaflet, entitled, “Do you know?” urges people to: “Text/call Isabel now on 07773501721 and let us know how we can help.”

The same number and name is listed on 40 Days for Life’s Birmingham campaign page. See here: https://40daysforlife.com/local-campaigns/birmingham-2/

The protest in Birmingham, outside a Marie Stopes clinic in Edgbaston, is an official 40 Days For Life demonstration. The Leicester protest, outside a BPAS health clinic, is understood not to be officially affiliated with the campaign.

The leaflet purports to quote women who have had abortions with one apparently saying: “For me, the abortion was harder to get over than the rape,” one women apparently says. Another adds: “No one ever told me I would live with this decision for the rest of my life. It’s been several years but my grief continues.”

Another woman says her doctor did not warn her about the “possible profuse bleeding and infection that lasted for weeks” or “the possibility of the hysterectomy I had 8 months later”.

The quotes appear alongside a picture of a 10-week old foetus being held in a hand. The leaflet refers people to the Good Counsel Network, a Catholic group which pays activists to picket outside clinics.

The pamphlet also suggests women who have abortions are more likely to commit suicide. It states: “Pregnancy is a protective factor against suicide. One study found that women who had abortions have six times higher rates of suicide than women who continue their pregnancies.”

The group uses a 28-year-old entry in the British Medical Journal and a 14-year-old Finnish study from the European Journal of Public Health to reference its claims.

However, a House of Commons report produced by the Science and Technology committee in 2007 described the Finnish study as “inappropriate”. It states: “Even though this study and others like it are controlled for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health status and medical disorders, the comparison groups are inappropriate for answering a question about the casual link between abortion and all-cause morbidity.”

Questions:

Does the Good Counsel Network endorse the messages included in the leaflet, including the suggestion that overcoming a termination is harder to deal with than being raped?

Did the Good Counsel Network help produce this leaflet?

I would be grateful if you could confirm receipt of this email and provide a response by 3pm tomorrow.

Many thanks,

Simon

Simon Murphy

News Reporter

Guardian News & Media

Pro-Abortion Buffer Zones Hypocrisy

Rupa Huq MP for Ealing Central and Acton is at the forefront of the campaign to introduce ‘Buffer Zones’ around abortion centres in the UK. This is a move primarily aimed at stopping groups like the Good Counsel Network (www.goodcounsetnet.com), the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants and 40 Days for Life, standing outside abortion centres to offer women going in real, practical help and support if they would like to continue their pregnancy. You can see short interviews with women who have been helped to avoid what would in effect have been forced abortion, on the Good Counsel Network website.

 

Rupa has said a number of times on National Television, that if you want to change the law, go and protest it outside parliament etc. You should never protest outside an abortion centre to change the law.

 

This photo is of Rupa protesting outside the Ealing abortion centre with Sister Supporter.

 

The Vigils are not held outside abortion centres to change the law; they are there to offer help and alternatives to abortion.

 

Rupa and the pro-aborts of SS and Aston University claim that it is “Just about moving Pro-Life demonstrations away from abortion centres and not stopping Pro-Life demonstrations altogether”. But then again on National Television, Rupa complained that another Pro-Life group, Abort67, had held a display at her office. This group does campaign to change the law on abortion, But Rupa thinks that they should not lobby the Constituency Office of an MP, who will not meet with her Constituents to discuss ‘Buffer Zones’, unless they support her views!

 

We then move to Parliament, where Rupa claims that the medical information used by Good Counsel has been meticulously fact- checked and found to be false. She only gave one example, which was to claim that a photo of a foetus at 20 weeks with fingernails was wrong as babies at 20 weeks don’t have fingernails! The NHS website states that babies have fingernails from 11 weeks.

 

After the debate, Rupa was photographed with Ealing Counsellors, MPs and members of SS. You may not recognise the woman from SS above Rupa’s head, but here she is in another photo. She had travelled all the way to Birmingham to break through the security barrier to try and disrupt the speakers at the March for Life. 

So let us be honest, Rupa et al, this is not just about forcing women to abort by removing offers of help from outside abortion centres. It is about silencing anyone who does not support your worldview. 

"Pro-Choice Feminists" Harass Pregnant Mums and Counsellors

Please share this picture far and wide, Sister Supporter the 'pro-choice, feminists' turned up at Ealing abortion centre today to film and record women entering Marie Stopes as our Counsellors speak to them. Here is one of their male 'feminists' filming a woman who has just entered, who our Counsellor to the left of the gate was speaking to. Do you think filming women entering Marie Stopes is OK? Do you think recording them speaking or choosing not to speak to a Counsellor is OK? This is what Rupa Huq the local MP has encouraged by supporting Sister Supporter protests.

And now Sister Supporter are standing in the street screaming that our Counsellors are filming women going in because we took photos of them filming women going in. God help us, I salute the two incredibly Christlike Counsellors there this morning.

Support a Pro-Life vigil and help women who need real help; http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/Abortion--apos-Clinic-apos--Vigils.html

Pro-Abortion Media Storm; A Response

Today the Mail on Sunday have published an inflammatory article attacking the outreach to women outside abortion centres which Good Counsel and other groups are involved in.

This will be the launch of a spectacular media campaign, inspired (orchestrated?) by BPAS to encourage MPs to back a new buffer zone bill (the aim of BPAS’ #Backoff business initiative to prevent women backing out of abortion when they are offered help by pro-lifers). Last year a small number of MPs backed efforts to bring in “Buffer Zones” round abortion centres.

So, backed by the most biased research team ever (Dr Pam Lowe, darling of Abortion Rights and Dr Graeme Hayes of Aston University) BPAS will now re-launch this campaign with the help of Keir Starmer, MP.

Dr Pam Lowe of Aston University speaking to Paul Tully of SPUC and Clare McCullough at the March for Life in May. Despite agreeing to do so, Dr Lowe and her colleague Dr Graeme Hayes have repeatedly neglected to respond to our invitation to speak to women who accepted help  from us outside abortion centres. Yet her research on Pro-life Vigils is used to promote the Buffer Zone movement

To help them do this, their favourite media chums (Channel 4, The Guardian and now the Mail on Sunday) have left no stone unturned.

Since February 2016, Good Counsel, 40 Days for Life and Abort 67 have had a selection of undercover ‘journalists’ on their tails. These ‘journalists’ have made a series of spectacular new discoveries:

• Good Counsel mentions that there are many studies showing an increased risk of breast cancer following abortion, while acknowledging that the medical establishment does not accept there is a proven link. (First reported 1998)
• Abort 67 displays graphic images at abortion sites. (Acknowledged all over their website and known by everybody who has ever read an article on pro-life witnesses).

And Shockingly

• 40 Days for Life was an idea that first came from – wait for it – AMERICA!

Yes. I am afraid it’s all true.

What is not true however is that we harass, shout at, follow or film women going to abortion centres. This is one lie that has been repeated so often it is now “fact” to the general public.

Unfortunately the Mail on Sunday and the Channel 4 Dispatches Programme (this Wednesday, 5^th October 11pm) as well as Aston University’s Research team refused to accept our offer to speak to any number of the 100’s of Mothers who have chosen life after accepting Good Counsel’s help outside an abortion centre; the very women who could tell them everything about what we do and don’t do, if they really wanted to know.

Please read and watch these and other reports on pro-life witnesses at abortion centres over the next few days and write in demanding that these women get their chance to speak.

There will be many important updates on this story from Good Counsel, so follow us on Facebook and on Twitter  Send us an email asking to receive updates
info(at)goodcounselnetwork.com Don’t miss the next part of this ongoing attempt by the abortionists and their media stooges to stop pregnant Mothers receiving the offer of help and alternative to abortion that so many of them want.
www.goodcounselnetwork.com

Ambulance Arrives at Abortion Centre London

Safe, Legal Abortion?

Above: Marie Stopes Ealing - ambulance is called for client in the first week of 40 Days for Life, 13-22nd February 2013.

Ambulance Marie Stopes Ealing 28th February 2013

Paramedics and Ambulance attend Marie Stopes Ealing 1st March 2013

Ambulance Marie Stopes Ealing 9th March 2013 

Paramedics and Ambulance Marie Stopes Ealing 14th March 2013

Abortion Providers are always striving to portray Pro-lifers as liars, especially when we talk about the risks of abortion. marie stopes, that bastion of honesty and integrity, take it upon themselves to take our leaflets from girls as they enter their centres. And BPAS can be seen here on Twitter attacking that same leaflet.

Yet as the above pictures of ambulances show, abortion is far from the safe, simple procedure with no after-affects that these groups pretend it is. Since BPAS and marie stopes deny almost every complication of abortion, it is hard to believe that the women who were taken away in these ambulances were forewarned that this was a possible outcome.

Our volunteers have helped sick and faint girls to their feet outside the abortion centre when they are vomiting or weak and sick on leaving on several occassions.

So as we reach the final two days of the 40 Days for Life Campaign, we are aware of well over 20 women who have kept their babies, just from the vigils at Whitfield St and Ealing, not including those from the Bedford Square campaign.

We still pray there please come and join us in prayer; http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/Abortion--Clinic--Vigils.html

Please donate to Good Counsel so that we can continue to help the Mothers, who change their minds on the very doorstep of this abortuary.

As always, we have ensured that any women entering the abortion centre were NOT captured in any of the pictures taken.

Please note: These photos belong to the Good Counsel Network you may reproduce them on condition that you include a link to this original blogpost.

Clare McCullough

BBC Live from an abortuary & the women they don't want to speak to

One that got away - A Baby Whose Mum Chose Life after Visiting an Abortuary
You will probably have heard by now about this programme at 10am today on BBC Radio 5 Live;

"Victoria [Derbyshire] speaks to doctors, nurses and patients live from an abortion clinic [sic].

It is hard to believe that this will be anything other than a bit of pro-death propaganda. No doubt some of the tragedy of abortion may come through, but it will be presented as a necessary evil, and a better option than raising a child in difficult circumstances - ultimately a good thing for society, but hard. That's our bet anyway. If you are listening-in, please don't hesitate to give some feedback to provide balance. The details are:

Call 0500 909693 [free from most landlines; other networks may vary]. Text:
85058 [standard message rate]. Email: Victoria@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @vicderbyshire.

If you would like to hear the other side of the story, the real help that women need, and what it is like for a woman who changes her mind at the abortuary doorstep, or what it is like for those who go through the abortion because they have no other choice, or if you want to hear from someone who spends her life providing real help to women in crisis pregnancies, read on. Robert Colquhoun of 40 Days for Life, has interviewed 4 such women at the Good Counsel Centre.

Here are interviews with two women who turned around on the doorsteps of the abortuary, because Catholics were there to offer them help, when both felt had that they had no choice. http://www.divshare.com/download/17571772-a3d (10 minutes) & http://www.divshare.com/download/17571864-4dc (20 minutes)

This third women has had an abortion and needs her vioce to be heard. Please send this link to everyone you know; http://www.divshare.com/download/17571931-cd3 (20 minutes)
Finally here is Ronni a volunteer with Good Counsel; http://www.divshare.com/download/17571913-6ce (11 minutes)

To give Mums-to-be a real chioce involves a lot of time, money and prayer, - we don't have enough of any of these to help all the turnarounds currently needing our help - if we all do our bit to help, even more lives will be saved. Please spread the word.

Clare and Stuart McCullough

Christians V Barbarians in Bedford Square

Nice to see the proponents of "choice" were out last night to deny us our right to free speech. It was a powerful vigil, especially as lent moves on towards Holy Week, as so many of the prayers and meditations referred to the ridiculing of Christ and of the rejection of Him. It was all very relevant to our society's rejection of the unborn.

It was a blessing to have the Bishop there. One that BPAS and their supporters had been deeply disturbed by. Even now we should write and thank Bishop Hopes who will certainly have got a lot of flack for coming, both from outside and probably from inside the Church, sadly.

There was something beautiful about standing and kneeling together in a dignified and peaceful, prayerful presence, while something sounding like the fighting Uruk-hai bawled and banged away next to us.

Oops sorry I meant...

If aliens landed in Bedford Square last night they would have instinctively stood with the pro-lifers, the other side looked like they would probably eat them.

I was proud to be standing with the Bishop and my fellow pro-lifers last night.

Oh and one last thing, if the pro-abortionists outnumbered us 2 to 1 last night, most of them must have been pregnant!

Clare McCullough

Anti-Life Demo In London Today

"There is going to be an anti-life rally against 40 Days for Life at the abortuary in Whitfield St, London, W1T 5BE today 2-4pm. We need as many Pro-Life people there as we can. Please come and pray! God bless! Please pass on this text."

There, we have passed it on. If you cannot be there please pray that the 40 Days for Life continues to go well, today is day 39.

Stuart McCullough

The Truth About Empty Arms

'Pro abortion groups applied pressure to the world's leading medical journal to suppress a report into maternal death rates, it has been claimed.'The Catholic Herald, 23 April 2010.
When I read the article from which the above quote was taken, I could not help but think of the many women we see (at Good Counsel) for whom the truth has been suppressed in so many ways.

The majority of women we see find themselves pregnant due to the failure of the contraception they are using. The first untruth they believe is that using contraception will ensure that they will not become pregnant. Another untruth not only they, but millions of women, believe is that the use of contraception liberates them to be as sexually active as they wish without having to suffer any consequences. This is why they are often so shocked; something they thought was infallible-their contraceptive, has let them down. They, therefore, initially panic and think they cannot cope with, and cannot be responsible for, the resulting pregnancy.

Another untruth is that the problem can be quickly got rid of by abortion and that the woman can go on to lead normal lives. Anyone undergoing any medical procedure is supposed to give their informed consent to the procedure they are having. Despite this, many women tell us they had no idea of the development of the baby they were about to kill, the abortion procedure itself or the possible long term serious effects on their own psychological, physical and emotional health.

In our culture of quick solutions, and self-realisation and self-fulfilment, those who are in a position to offer alternatives to abortion do not do so. Abortion is offered as the only solution to a young woman in a state of distress and panic, frequently exacerbated by pressure from, or abandonment by the baby's father.

I see women after they have given birth who have learned the truth, been brave enough to trust in God's Providence and given life to their babies.

These women often cry with relief and joy, that they did have courage, that there are people who can help, that abortion is not the only alternative, but most of all that they have their babies. I have asked many of them, months later, if they have any regrets. I have never had a 'Yes'. In spite of the difficult lives they sometimes have to lead, their babies are very precious to them. I cannot help but think at times of all of those other women with empty arms, suffering the after affects of abortion who were not given the truth.

Ronni O'Gara

General Election: Are We A One Issue People?

There is a lot of mixed opinion about what we should consider before deciding who to vote for. But I believe that if we looked at any mass killing of human beings other than abortion where hundreds of thousands of lives were being taken every year, such as in Nazi Germany for example, no-one (retrospectively at least) would say "We can't just vote on that one issue"!*@ Until abortion is ended, no other issue can compare with the huge and wholesale slaughter that deprives my unborn neighbour of his right to life, her right to own property, his right to work, her right to be educated, his right to have food on her table, his right to freedom. All rights are pointless if we do not have a right to be born! Fr Frank Pavone illustrates this perfectly in the following article, from his website, which is so good I am including it in this blog in full.
If we don't believe abortion is a big enough issue to be worth casting our vote on, how on earth do we imagine that any parliamentary candidate is going to? Read on...

by Clare McCullough

The following article was taken from the Priests for Life website www.priestsforlife.org

You Wouldn’t Even Ask….
By Fr. Frank Pavone

If a candidate who supported terrorism asked for your vote, would you say, "I disagree with you on terrorism, but where do you stand on other issues?

"I doubt it.

In fact, if a terrorism sympathizer presented him/herself for your vote, you would immediately know that such a position disqualifies the candidate for public office -- no matter how good he or she may be on other issues. The horror of terrorism dwarfs whatever good might be found in the candidate's plan for housing, education, or health care. Regarding those plans, you wouldn't even ask.

So why do so many people say, "This candidate favors legal abortion. I disagree. But I'm voting for this person because she has good ideas about health care (or some other issue).

"Such a position makes no sense whatsoever, unless one is completely blind to the violence of abortion. That, of course, is the problem. But we need only see what abortion looks like, or read descriptions from the abortionists themselves, and the evidence is clear. (USA Today refused to sell me space for an ad that quoted abortionists describing their work because the readers would be traumatized just by the words!)

Abortion is no less violent than terrorism. Any candidate who says abortion should be kept legal disqualifies him/herself from public service. We need look no further, we need pay no attention to what that candidate says on other issues. Support for abortion is enough for us to decide not to vote for such a person.

Pope John Paul II put it this way: "Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination" (Christifideles Laici, 1988).

False and illusory. Those are strong and clear words that call for our further reflection.

"I stand for adequate and comprehensive health care." So far, so good. But as soon as you say that a procedure that tears the arms off of little babies is part of "health care," then your understanding of the term "health care" is obviously quite different from the actual meaning of the words. In short, you lose credibility. Your claim to health care is "illusory." It sounds good, but is in fact destructive, because it masks an act of violence.

"My plan for adequate housing will succeed." Fine. But what are houses for, if not for people to live in them? If you allow the killing of the children who would otherwise live in those houses, how am I supposed to get excited by your housing project?

It's easy to get confused by all the arguments in an election year. But if you start by asking where candidates stand on abortion, you can eliminate a lot of other questions you needn't even ask.

For more election related articles and information, visit

www.priestsforlife.org/elections

For UK General Election Information:
Pro-Life Information on the election
http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/2009/02/spucs-general-election-campaign-starts.html
http://spuc.org.uk

See how your MP has voted on Life Issues in the past
http://www.spuc.org.uk/lobbying/uk-mp-votes/overview

Contact SPUC for a questionnaire for any prospective election candidates
02070917091