Blackbirds at Dawn – Play About Modern Day Slavery University of Cumbria Being Performed In Lancaster. 2017 Election and the Unborn Child. Where Do The Candidates Stand? And Where Do the People Stand? Great Bank Holiday Monday Walk of Witness.

May 21, 2017 | News

 

 

September 15 and 16 2017: Blackbirds at Dawn, a play about modern day slavery

This play is by Donna Worthington, one of our Anti-Trafficking Network, and being staged at the  University of Cumbria, Bowerham Road, Lancaster LA1 3JD

Performances will be on Friday 15th September 2017 at 7.30 pm and Saturday 16th September at 2.00 pm and 7.30 pm followed by post production discussions.

Set in a Dystopian future “Blackbirds at Dawn” explores the urgent issue of modern slavery:  A door.  Closed.  Blackbirds singing.  An underground flat in the future…  An old woman is struggling to survive poverty, cold and haunting memories of her past, when suddenly the hidden world of human enslavement knocks on her door in the form of a young woman, about to give birth and desperate.  “Blackbirds at Dawn” is a play about modern slavery, survival, fear, hope, entrapment, the body and what it means to be human and and live a human life.

Donna is doing the box office and the mobile number on the poster (see http://www.olotv.org.uk/parish-groups/trafficking/work-olotv-parish-group ) is her number. If people leave a message on her phone, she will always get back to them.

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2017 Election and the Unborn Child. Where Do The Candidates Stand? And Where Do the People Stand?

Choice and the Unborn ChildThe unborn child at 18 weeks gestation. 600 babies are aborted daily in the UK - some, up to and even during birth, with the full force of British law. 7 million have been aborted since abortion was made legal and some have had up to 8 legal abortions.

Click here to find out:

Where Do They Stand    http://wheredotheystand.org.uk/

Where do they stand.jpg

2017 is the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act. It went through its Second Reading in the House of Commons with only 29 MPs voting against. Since then more than 8 million British babies have been aborted and millions of human embryos experimented upon – with laws even allowing the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos.  The next Parliament will almost certainly vote again on whether to permit euthanasia and today many more MPs now support the right to life.

And a new poll of pblic attitudes (see below), taken in May 2017, shows that many more people reject the idea that taking the life of an unborn child can be reduced to merely a question of “choice.” If the unborn chold could raise her voice she would doubtless say “it’s my body, not your choice.” 

Choice and the Unborn Child8 million too many.jpg

When voters come to use their votes on June 8th they will not only be voting for a new Government, they will be voting for individual Members of Parliament who will hold in their hands the gift of life or death. 

A voter who wants to affirm the right to life of an unborn child, stop destructive experiments on human embryos, and safeguard disabled people from the dangers of euthanasia, needs to establish where their individual candidates stand and weigh up the positions of the political parties.

Beyond all other questions, this one is about the right to life itself.

The key thing is to find out where individual candiates stand – but it is also helpful to know the attitude of political parties and their leaders – and whether parties allow issues like abortion to be entirely a “conscience” question or whether it has become a party policy.

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The pro life group, Where Do They Stand? has helpfully produced a guide to the attitudes of candiates in the forthcoming election. By simply typing in your post code you can find out where they stand:

Click here:

Where Do They Stand    http://wheredotheystand.org.uk/

And this is where they leaders and parties stand….

Where the Leaders Stand :

2017 Johnson Bill to further liberalise the Abortion laws

Theresa May – Abstained

Jeremy Corbyn –  For

Tim Farron – Abstained


2015 Bill to Ban Sex Selective Gender Abortions

Theresa May – For

Jeremy Corbyn –  Against

Tim Farron – Abstained


2015 Creation of 3-Parent Babies

Theresa May – Abstained

Jeremy Corbyn –  For

Tim Farron – For

2008 Information for Disability Diagnosis

Theresa May – For

Jeremy Corbyn –  Against

Tim Farron – Abstained

2008 Ban on Creating Animal Human Hybrid Embryos

Theresa May – For

Jeremy Corbyn –  Abstained

Tim Farron – For


2008 Vote to Reduce Abortion to 20 weeks

Theresa May – For

Jeremy Corbyn –  Against

Tim Farron – Abstained

2015 Vote on the Bill to legalise assisted suicide

Theresa May – Against

Jeremy Corbyn –  Abstained

Tim Farron – Abstained

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, for the SNP, has called for women from Northern Ireland to be given free abortions on the NHS but she has consistently opposed the legalising of assisted suicide.  The leader of the SNP at Westminster, Angus Robertson, abstained on the 2015 Assisted Suicide Bill, abstained on the 2017 Johnson Bill to further liberalise abortion, voted against the banning of sex selection abortions, and voted in favour of three parent babies and animal human hybrid embryos and voted against any reduction in the upper limit for abortions.

Caroline Lucas MP, of the Greens, was not in Parliament when some of the votes were taken but in 2015 voted for assisted suicide and voted for the 2017 Johnson Bill to further liberalise abortion, voted against the banning of sex selection abortions, and against independent abortion counselling.

A Question of Conscience

In both Houses Conservative Government Ministers have repeatedly insisted that beginning and end of life issues are a matter of conscience for individual Members and that there is not Party Policy.

The Labour Opposition says that MPs may follow their conscience but the Party has policy in favour of abortion and a commitment to work for the extension of abortion appears in the 2017 manifesto. They do not have a policy commitment to support euthanasia. Jeemy Corbyn voted three times for abortion up to birth on various grounds and voted in favour of the compulsory enrolment on a published register of doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion.

The Liberal Democrats have also allowed MPs a free vote but have made abortion a policy commitment , favouring an extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. Their spokesperson in the Lords recently said it is their policy to permit assisted suicide. During the 2017 election campaign the Liberal Democrats announced that Tim Farron had abandoned his previous commitment to uphold the right to life of the unborn child.

For the SNP, Carol Monaghan (MP, Glasgow North West) says “The party Constitution enshrines freedom of conscience and meant I could join the SNP without compromising my faith.”

 

The Green Party has party policy supporting abortion and “non animal experiments” which includes support for experiments on human embryos. It suppors assisted suicide.

These are some of the issues that arise from the current law:

 

 These are the issues, the candidates, the leaders and the parties….

Men and women gave their lives that we should have the freedom to live in a democracy rather than a dictatorship. When casting our votes we owe it to them to carefully consider where individual candidates and parties stand and to vote to protect the most vulnerable and defenceless among us.

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So what about the British public?

And Where Do British Women and Men Stand on The Issue?

 n May 21st 2017 it was reported that:

ComRes interviewed 2,008 British adults online between 12th and 14th May 2017. Data was weighted to be representative of all GB adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

  • Only 1% want the abortion time limit raised to birth
  • 70% of women would like the current time limit for abortion to be lowered.
  • 59% of women would like the abortion time limit lowered to 16 weeks or lower.
  • 65% oppose UK taxpayer money being spent on abortions overseas.
  • 93% of women want independent abortion counselling introduced.
  • 91% of women want a sex-selective abortion ban.
  • 79% of general population want a five-day consideration period before abortion.
  • 84% of women want improved pregnancy support for women in crisis.
  • 76% of population want introduction of doctors verifying women not coerced.
  • 70% of parents want introduction of parental consent for girls 15 and under to get abortions.

 

 

Walk of Witness – show your support for those without a voice.

The annual Right To Life Walk along the River Ribble took place on  Bank Holiday Monday, May 29th 2017 – and was well supported. 

 

 

 

Lord David Alton

For 18 years David Alton was a Member of the House of Commons and today he is an Independent Crossbench Life Peer in the UK House of Lords.

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