Fresh off their historic victory in bringing about the end of the constitutional right to abortion in the US, these groups are importing familiar tactics, including public protests and demonstrations, anti-abortion counseling centers or so-called “crisis pregnancy centers”, and the cultivation of ties with clerical leaders.
These efforts are meeting significant opposition in Britain, where abortion access is widely supported and generally available up to 24 weeks and parliament recently passed legislation targeting harassment outside clinics. But reproductive rights advocacy groups are warily observing the US movement’s expansion.
“That US Christian right and anti-abortion groups are establishing bases in the UK means that the issue of abortion – and related sexual and reproductive rights – will become increasingly contested in public debate and at a political level, even when there is broad social acceptance for the UK abortion model,” says Neil Datta, executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Health.
“We can expect that the successes they have had in the US in these areas to be adapted to a UK context in the coming years.”