The Life Labour Group ask pro-life voters not to dismiss Labour candidates out of hand. It is true that the Labour Party's 1977 National Conference voted by an overwhelming majority for abortion on demand. But, the same conference, by almost as big a majority, also voted not to mandate Labour M Ps.
The Labour Party National Executive Committee and the Labour Cabinet are both against the mandating of Labour MN on this issue. It is these two bodies who will decide on the contents of the next General Election Manifesto. Therefore, it is very unlikely that any policy on abortion will be included.
How can the Labour Party make promises to the electorate when the Party has agreed that the Party Whip will not be used, and that Labour MPs arc allowed to follow their own thinking on this matter? The party would be deceiving the electorate as it knows it hasn't much chance of liberalising the abortion laws even further.
Probably not even a majority of the Labour MPs would support it. It would have to rely on a lot of luck, and Opposition MPs. The Life Labour Group also ask pro-life voters not to dismiss the Parliamentary Labour Party out of hand. Some pro-life campaigners are doing this quite wrongly. If the Bill is right, Labour MPs WM vote for a stronger abortion law. Ninety-four Labour MPs voted for the James White Bill as compared with 93 Tories. Eighty-two Labour MPs voted against. The free vote still stands, therefore do not dismiss your parliamentary OP local
candidate out
government Labour
candidate out
government Labour of hand. He or she may be sympathetic to your view on abortion. Find out before you decide to vote for the opposition or abstain as incited by some pro-life campaigners. Contrary to the impression given by the Catholic Press, "abortion on demand" was first passed by the 1975 Labour Party Conference. Some pro-life campaigners talk as though the 1977 decision is new. If you are a pro-life Labour Party member, don't resign. Resigning may make your conscience feel better in that you have washed your hands of an abortionist organisation, but it will not help the unborn child. The reality is that the Labour Party is a major part of the democracy of Britain.
The party has a large influence on the laws, Labour MPs and the type of future Labour MPs. Being an acfive Labour Party member or trade unionist gives you a bigger voice than the ordinary voter. It is hard going for the pro-life socialist, but if we drop out of the Party it will mean that there will be no hope of reversing the abortionism within the party and little hope of repealing the Abortion Act, 1967. It is better that we encourage pro-life Labour voters to join the party and to get active with us. The Life Labour Group is a prolife socialist ginger group which is specifically organising pro-life Labour Party members. Our first aim is to counter the abortionist propaganda within the party and to relieve the pro-death pressure on pro-life Labour MPs.
Our second aim is to repeal the Abortion Act, 1967, and replace it with a State Pregnancy Advice and Caring Service that would help every mother and all unborn children.
If you are a pro-life Labour Party member or a Labour voter who is willing to join the party, we invite you to contact us: Life Labour Group, 8 Minster Road, Haverhill, Suffolk. Tel. 04404657.
John and Geraldine Hanger Secretaries to the Life Labour Group Haverhill,
Suffolk.
Although I am a Catholic, and opposed to abortion, I will be ignoring G. F. Moorhouse's advice (November4) and voting for a Labour candidate whether or not he or she favours abortion.
I will be doing this in the firm knowledge that a Labour government will tackle the root causes of abortion — low maternity payments, pitiful Social Security benefits for the single parent family, n
bad housing, and the ignorant condemnation of single women who ant (often, of course, become pregnant by narrow-minded Catholic clergy). A Conservative government might well mean that abortions are less readily available in hospitals — but this will only make them more readily available in private clinics for the rich or on the back streets for the poor. Unless the root causes of abortion are dealt with it will continue to exist either legally or illegally. What is the way to stop abortion'? It is to work for the establishment of a Socialist State based on the Christian ideals of equality, charity, and communalism. So long as people return the Conservative Party to power, based as it is on the profit motive, self-interest, and the lack of compassion for the underprivileged, and therefore incompatible with the spirit of the Gospels, abortion will continue to be the only way out for thousands of women.
A Labour majority, whether it or
liberalises the abortion laws not a good m
— and any Labour MPs
are, of e staunch anti
— and any Labour MPs
are, of e staunch anti , s course, — will mean fewer abortions because it will mean that no child need be an unwanted burden because of social or economic reasons.
David Fairiamb