We've defended reproductive rights from religiously motivated restrictions since our founding.
Religion should not stand in the way of reproductive healthcare.
A desire to restrict reproductive rights, and to control women's bodies, is a hallmark of religious fundamentalism. We strongly support the right of women to have legal and safe abortions and access to emergency contraception.
Since its founding the National Secular Society has supported reproductive rights. In 1878 our founder and vice-president were prosecuted for making information about birth control accessible to working class women.
Throughout the world, reproductive rights are still under threat from theocrats. While individual religious people hold diverse views on abortion, every stage of progress in reproductive healthcare has been fought by religious organisations. Often these have involved virulent campaigns of intimidation and misinformation.
84% of people in the UK believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This includes 76% of religious people and 94% of nonreligious people.
In the UK, emergency contraception can still sometimes be difficult to obtain. Some religious pharmacists have defied General Pharmaceutical Council guidance by refusing to sell it or even to dispense a prescription given to a woman after a consultation with her own doctor.
People of all religions and beliefs can have disagreements on the boundaries of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. However, religious beliefs should not be used to restrict the bodily autonomy of other people.
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Latest updates
Ensure women can access emergency contraception, pharmacy told
Posted: Thu, 5 Nov 2020 17:03
Britain's pharmacy regulator has told Lloyds Pharmacy to take action to ensure women can access emergency contraception after a woman was refused the morning after pill on religious grounds.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has raised the matter with Lloyds after the National Secular Society raised concerns over the incident.
Last month it was reported that a woman, named only as Charlotte, had been refused the morning after pill as a pharmacist told her she could not distribute it "for religious reasons".
The incident happened at Charlotte's local branch of Lloyds Pharmacy in south London, and left her feeling "shocked and humiliated".
Last year the NSS raised a similar incident with the GPhC, as a woman was refused the morning after pill at a Lloyds Pharmacy branch in Brighton.
The GPhC has now told the NSS it has "issued guidance to Lloyds Pharmacy ensuring that all staff are aware of our standards and guidance".
Relevant section of guidance
GPhC guidance says pharmacy professionals who are unwilling to provide services should "take steps to make sure the person asking for care is at the centre of their decision-making, so they can access the service they need in a timely manner and without hindrance".
It also says pharmacists should "not impose" their own values and beliefs on other people, and they should "take responsibility for ensuring that person-centred care is not compromised because of personal values and beliefs".
NSS comment
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans welcomed the GPhC's response.
"Women's reproductive rights shouldn't be subject to the personal beliefs of individual pharmacists. Refusing contraception creates a stigma and unnecessary stress for women who simply want to access medicine which they need, and may endanger their health.
"The relevant regulatory guidance strikes a sensible balance, which protects the rights of both workers and consumers. Ensuring pharmacists uphold it should mean similar incidents don't recur."
Relevant recent religious lobbying
In recent years religious lobbying groups have argued for 'conscientious objection' clauses which would allow medical staff to refuse to provide certain services for religious reasons.
In 2018 a bill tabled in the Lords aimed to extend the rights of medical practitioners, including pharmacists, to refuse to carry out their duties on religious grounds. Labour peer Glenys Thornton was among its opponents.
Image: © HRA Pharma, via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 4.0] (cropped)
NSS welcomes ECHR’s rejection of anti-abortion nurses’ appeal
Posted: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:03
The National Secular Society has welcomed a European court's decision to reject an appeal by two nurses who were rejected from positions as midwives because they refused to perform abortions.
Ellinor Grimmark and Linda Steen, who are Christian, claimed the refusal to hire them as midwives in Sweden was a violation of their right to freedom of religion and conscience.
Several Swedish courts had ruled against them and last week the European Court of Human Rights declined to take up their case, which it described as "manifestly ill-founded".
Grimmark brought complaints under articles nine, 10 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. These protect, respectively, the right to freedom of religion, thought and conscience; freedom of expression; and freedom from discrimination.
The judges ruled there had been an "interference" with Grimmark's religious freedom but it was not a violation of the convention. This was because it had a "sufficient basis in Swedish law", pursued the "legitimate aim of protecting the health of women seeking an abortion" and was proportionate.
The court also referenced a finding from the Swedish discrimination ombudsman that a nurse refusing to perform abortions for non-religious reasons would have faced the same treatment.
The ECHR ruling found that Sweden's domestic courts "carefully balanced the different rights against each other and provided detailed conclusions which were based on sufficient and relevant reasoning".
The court also dismissed Grimmark's complaints that her freedom of expression had been violated because she expressed her opinion in the media, and that she had been unlawfully discriminated against.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans welcomed the court's decision.
"Sweden's healthcare authorities took the entirely legitimate view that allowing individuals to opt out of providing healthcare services would threaten the integrity of those services and the state's ability to provide access to abortion.
"It's reasonable to ask healthcare professionals to take responsibility for choosing a role that will not bring their own beliefs into conflict with the care they are expected to provide to patients.
"Religious freedom is a qualified right and it's reasonable to restrict it in a healthcare setting when it undermines patient-centred care and the rights of women seeking abortions."
Dr Antony Lempert, the chair of the NSS's Secular Medical Forum, said: "That people, including healthcare professionals, should not be discriminated against on the basis of their beliefs does not mean that the expression of those beliefs can be allowed to compromise patients' healthcare needs.
"Patients are necessarily reliant on their healthcare professionals who must take responsibility for choosing which job to apply for, particularly if they have self-imposed restrictions on aspects of their work.
"This is the latest ECHR judgement to support the principle that women must be able to access safe, legal abortions and that employers will not be penalised for appointing only healthcare staff willing to perform the required duties."
The dismissal of the case means the nurses cannot appeal to the ECHR again.
Christian right campaigners play significant role
The nurses were assisted by ADF International, the global wing of the US-based Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
ADF International says it campaigns for "religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family" worldwide. It has dramatically increased its spending in Europe in recent years as taken up a number of legal cases on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and assisted dying.
ADF was co-founded 25 years ago by a US Christian right leader who wrote a book condemning "the homosexual agenda" as the key "threat to religious freedom today".
Image: Building of the European Court of Human Rights, via Wikipedia, © User: CherryX [CC BY-SA 3.0]
