Anti-life agenda cost Labour safe seat, claim pro-life campaigners

BY MARK GREAVES
LABOUR WAS DEFEATED is the Glasgow East by-election because of its support for abortion and embryo research, according to pro-life
groups.
John Mason, who won the seat for the Scottish National Party, was the only candidate who opposed the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. He also supported a lowering of the abortion time limit.
He managed to overturn a 13800 majority to claim a seat that had been Labour since the 1920s and where a third of the voters are Catholic.
The result follows strong criticism of Labour by Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell, whose diocese covers Glasgow East. He said the party had "lost its ethical crerlibility".
Lord Alton, a Catholic peer, said the results showed the massive influence that pm-life voters could have on the next general election.
"Not everyone who voted for John Mason did so because of the HFE Bill but, with a majority of just over 300, pro-life votes were the ones that made the difference.
Lord Alton pointed to the million and a half protest cards sent to Parliament by pro-life voters who said they would vote for MPs that opposed the Government's HFE Bill.
He added: "They will be enough to determine the complexion of the next Parliament and the next Government."
Jim Dobbin MK chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, agreed that the HFE Bill was a "major factor" in the election result.
He said: "The HFE Bill will now be hanging over our heads until the autumn. Voters in general, and in particular from faith communities, cannot understand how a Labour Government can force through such things as creating animal and human mixed embryos, saviour siblings and GM babies.
"In addition to all this the Bill has given the opportunity to allow extreme pro-abortion MPs to further liberalise the abortion law, even though we already have the highest abortion rates even" Julia Millington, of the Alive and Kicking Alliance, said that Britain was entering a new era of politics where abortion will be a significant by-election issue. She said: "While the election is further evidence of widespread disaffection with the government, the pro-life vote in this by-election was nonetheless significant and almost certainly swung the final vote in favour of the SNP."
The lobby group Right to Life said in a statement that pro-life issues were a key part of the byelection campaigning.
Posters that revealed the candidates' voting intentions on abortion and embryo research were put up in the 12 Catholic churches in the area. Priests also spoke about the election. though they did not back particular candidates.
Phyllis Bowman, director of Right to Life, said the by-election showed that Catholics would no longer "blindly vote according to their traditions".
But she said that they would not necessarily turn to the Conservatives unless they chose candidates who were pro-life.
She pointed out that the Conserv, alive and Lib Dem candidates, who were both "strongly pro-abortion", only won a small proportion of the votes.
Jill Segger: Page 10