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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End faith-based selection in schools, UN committee urges
Posted: Wed, 7 Jun 2023 12:03
Schools in England should be prevented from religious discrimination in their admissions, a United Nations committee has said.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) also recommended repealing compulsory collective worship in schools and the parental right of withdrawal from sex education.
The recommendations were made in the CRC's concluding observations, published today, on the most recent periodic reports of child rights in the UK.
The National Secular Society welcomed these recommendations, which it has raised with the UN repeatedly for many years.
Discrimination in faith schools
The CRC urged the UK to "guarantee the right of all children to freedom of expression and to practise freely their religion or belief", including by "preventing the use of religion as a selection criterion for school admissions in England".
Most types of faith schools in England have exemptions from the Equality Act 2010, which enable them to prioritise children from families who share their faith if they are oversubscribed.
This can include requiring parents and children to regularly attend a local place of worship or provide evidence of baptism.
Many parents find that because they belong to no religion or a minority religion, they are unable to send their children to their local state school.
The NSS has long campaigned for the equality law exemptions for faith schools to be repealed.
The CRC also recommended "revising the education syllabus in Northern Ireland to include education on and respect for a diversity of religions".
Last year NI's High Court ruled that the country's religious education system breaches the European Convention on Human Rights due to its heavy Christian bias.
Compulsory collective worship
The CRC recommended "repealing legal provisions for compulsory attendance in collective worship" in schools.
The law in England and Wales states that children at all maintained schools "shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship". Northern Ireland and Scotland have similar laws. Even in schools with no religious designation, the worship must be "wholly or mainly of a Christian character". The UK is the only Western democracy which legally imposes worship in publicly funded schools.
The NSS has long called for collective worship laws to be abolished because they breach children and families' freedom of religion or belief.
The committee said the UK should establish "statutory guidance to ensure the right of all children, including children under 16 years of age, to withdraw from religious classes without parental consent".
Children cannot currently withdraw themselves from collective worship until they reach Sixth Form.
The NI High Court also found NI's collective worship laws breach human rights.
Relationships and sex education
The CRC said "comprehensive, age-appropriate and evidence-based" sex education should be compulsory at all levels of education, including information on same-sex relationships and reproductive health rights. It said this should be "without the possibility for faith-based schools or parents to opt out of such education".
Parents in England, Scotland and NI can withdraw their children from sex education. While relationships and sex education is compulsory for all state schools in England, NI and Wales, faith schools may teach it from a religious perspective. NSS research in 2018 found this results in "distorted" sex education, including teaching adolescents that contraception and same-sex relationships are morally wrong. The CRC raised particular concern about discrimination against children who are LGBT.
NSS urges government to implement recommendation to make inclusive schools "a reality"
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We welcome the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's recommendation that faith-based selection at schools be abolished.
"As the UK becomes more irreligious and religiously-diverse, more parents are finding their children locked out of their local school, simply because they don't belong to the 'right' religion. It's disgraceful that such religious discrimination is permitted in the schools we all pay for.
"We also welcome the committee's recommendation to end compulsory collective worship. Compelling children to pray to gods they do not believe in has no place in schools.
"It's high time our entire education system was transformed into a secular, inclusive one which equally welcomes children from families of all religions and beliefs. We urge the government to implement the CRC's recommendations to make this a reality."
NOTES
Other CRC recommendations which the NSS has called for include:
- "Promptly and effectively" investigating and intervening in all cases of child abuse, including in religious institutions.
- Ensuring access for adolescent girls to "age-appropriate family planning services, affordable contraceptives and safe abortion and post-abortion care services", particularly in Northern Ireland.
- Developing strategies for eliminating child marriage, female genital mutilation and 'honour' violence.
- Ending "conversion therapy" of children.
- Improving education about children's human rights among children and teachers.
NSS calls for review of religious ‘crisis pregnancy centres’
Posted: Wed, 22 Mar 2023 09:32
The National Secular Society has urged ministers to review the charitable status of 'crisis pregnancy centres' giving unethical advice to pregnant woman.
Crisis pregnancy centres are organisations outside the NHS that offer advice to women with unplanned pregnancies. Many are registered charities. Of the 57 centres identified in a BBC Panorama investigation aired last month, 21 gave "misleading medical information and/or unethical advice" in order to dissuade women from having abortions.
Of the three centres that featured in the documentary, two included "advancement of religion" among their charitable aims. The Scottish branch of the third centre, Stanton Healthcare, previously included "advancement of religion" amongst its charitable aims but this has since been removed.
In letters to UK charity ministers last week, the NSS said it was "reasonable to conclude these organisations are seeking to dissuade women from having abortions due to religious beliefs". It added that "it is difficult to see how they are acting in the public benefit".
The NSS called on ministers to review the charitable status of the organisations in question and to take steps to prevent similar organisations from obtaining charitable status in the future. The letter also urged a broader review of "advancement of religion" as a grounds for charitable status.
Amongst the misleading advice provided by the centres were claims that abortion was linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and infertility, and could cause 'post-abortion syndrome', a condition not recognised by the NHS. None of these assertions are supported by scientific evidence.
Footage from consultations at three centres were analysed by a consultant gynaecologist and the Young People and Families Lead of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. They determined that the counsellors at the centres were being "manipulative" and were trying to "cause guilt".
The NSS's call comes amidst warnings from experts that the UK is facing a "crisis point" in abortion provision, with increasing demand and reduced access to care in many areas. Without access to high quality NHS funded care, women may be more likely to turn to crisis pregnancy centres.
The NSS has previously questioned why Stanton Healthcare was allowed to register a new branch in Scotland in 2021. An undercover reporter had previously been told at Stanton Healthcare's Belfast clinic that she was "too beautiful for abortion" and that a termination would make her breasts "fill with cancer".
NSS: 'religious charities cannot be allowed to misinform and emotionally manipulate women'
NSS campaigns officer Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: "Women have a right to impartial, medically accurate advice when deciding whether to continue a pregnancy or not.
"We cannot allow opportunistic religious charities to misinform and emotionally manipulate women in order to dissuade them from having abortions.
"Ministers must now act to bring these organisations to heel."
Image by Chokniti Khongchum from Pixabay
