Evan Harris was the next to speak at the Voice for Choice meeting (see part 1), speaking mostly about himself and how fantastic his efforts in parliament had been. Evan Harris was a leading pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia politician during his time in Parliament. Harris began by
lamenting that pro-life groups are and have been banned from universities, as
this makes martyrs out of them. I’m sure students at the University of Bristol
and University College London would have a few things to say about that. Harris then launched an ignorant attack on
pro-lifers in the UK, making wild and unsubstantiated claims that we are seeing
“American tactics, and certainly American money” pouring into the UK pro-life
scene. Such a claim is laughable. Harris completely failed to provide any evidence of “American tactics and money”. However, considering that two out of the three speakers were Americans, I'm sure Harris knows a thing or two about American influence. For someone who cries “evidence based” at every opportunity,
Harris failed to provide any evidence-based facts of his own. 
Harris continued his
non-evidence based diatribe by claiming that crisis pregnancy centres were
“part of a conspiracy”! Dr. Harris, please tell us more about this exciting conspiracy you claim to know about! Perhaps Dr. Harris has been
spending too much time surfing through spurious internet forums and websites. Again, there was a distinct lack of evidence-based support
for his claims. When Harris finally got around to speaking about the political
scene, he lamented the wasted pro-abortion majority in parliament from 1997-2010
(the Blair and Brown years). Dr Harris bemoaned the fact that we still have a 1967 Abortion Act. Harris said he wanted to see nurses doing abortions. On a related note, SPUC has been supporting the conscientious objection of two midwives to any involvement in abortion. Another important case regarding conscientious objection is that of Bayatyan v. Armenia. Pro-life lawyer Dr. Roger Kiska, who works at the major European institutions, has written about this case and its importance in the field of abortion and conscientious objection. Roger will be speaking at SPUC's forthcoming conference on abortion and maternal health, looking at the question of abortion as a 'right' in international law. Harris also wants abortions carried out in places other than abortion facilities. BPAS has been pushing for bedroom abortions for several years. After desperate attempts to have their way with the Department of Health, they decided to launch a legal challenge, which was strongly defeated last year. It's important to keep in mind the devestating impact such anti-life ideas as proposed by Harris and BPAS could further have on the abortion scene in the developing world.
Harris was also emphatic
that the “abortion in Northern Ireland ship” had well and truly sailed away and
was a non-starter. SPUC
has successfully campaigned on the issue for years, together with
other pro-life groups at the grassroots and political level.
Harris was very keen to proclaim his influence on people who are actually members of parliament, unlike himself. As
Third and final part coming...
