A DISABLED woman from Scotland is to stand as an independent Pro-Life candidate in the Croydon North-west byelection.
Mr Marilyn Gillies-Carr, 39 who was born without arms, is the first Parliamentary candidate in Britain to run on the Pro-Life ticket. and she has the backing of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
Speaking from her home in Dundee. Mrs Gillies-Carr said she was not being "used by SPUC". as pro-abortionists might claim. but was concerned to draw attention to the "dangerous attitudes developing in society towards the disabled."' Mrs Gillies-Carr added: "I have also no doubt that proabortionists will want to put me down as a Catholic — so I might as well answer this point now by stating that I am a Presbyterian."
She said she was horrified by hypocrisy over the Year for the Disabled. The same people and organisations that were supposedly supporting the i disabled were "taking a front line stand on pushing for any means to rid society of the! handicapped."
But the "last straw" was the introduction on Wednesday this week of a Bill by Miss Jo Richardson (Labour Barking) calling for free abortion facilities 011 the National Health Service.
• Women opposed to Ms Richardson's Bill demonstrated outside the Labour Party headquarters on Tuesday. Ms Debbie Sanders, speaking for the group, said the Bill was "ludicrous". It did not advance women's rights. but endangered their health, and even their lives. Abortion was used in place of social reform, and was a cheap way of giving women a better standard of living. Ms Richardson was a supporter of the Labour Abortion Rights CaMpaign. which wanted abortion on demand.