Tory slammed over teenage abortion speech

By JOE JENKINS A CATHOLIC GROUP has condemned a Conservative MP's proposal that young unmarried mothers should have abortions rather than increase the burden on the welfare system.
John Townend MI', a spokesman for Tory backbenchers, and chairman of the Conservative Party Committee on Finance, outraged the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) when he lashed out at unmarried pregnant teenage girls this week, calling them an "annoyance to decent people".
In a speech to York University Conservative Students' Association, he said: "With :the option of contraception, abortion and adoption, we should announce that, whilst we arc honouring benefits to existing unmarried mothers, in the future these will be scaled down."
• Speaking to the Herald this -week, Mr Townend said "It is -unfair that while young 'couples have to save to buy a thouse, these people get housed just because they 'decide to have a child, when 'there are alternatives. Abortion is just one option." SPUC is furious that an MP has used the abortion
issue as a prelude to possible benefit reforms in the next budget.
In a letter to Mr Townend, John Smeaton, SPUC's general secretary, writes: "These proposals amount to an attempt to save money at the expense of badgering young girls to have abortions and at the cost of the lives of the most vulnerable members of society unborn children."
Mr Smeaton told the Herald: "I would strongly urge Catholics living in Tory constituencies to lobby their MP and demand that Mr Townend consider his position on the finance committee after these outrageous remarks." He dismisses Mr Townend's analysis of urunarried mothers as "crude".
"Better sex education in schools is needed," he says, "not scapegoating."
Chris Smith MP, Labour's Social Security spokesman joined the attack on Mr Townend.
"He seems to want to force people into considering abortion where they would not otherwise wish to do so," he says.
"He is seeking to blame the ills of the world on people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves as single parents."
Mr Townend is one of a number of MPs, not just on the Government benches, who wish to cut spending, with the Social Security bill set to soar to around the £100 billion mark by the end of the century.
Social Security currently costs taxpayers £90 billion, more than a third of total Government expenditure. By scrapping the £6.30 a week one-parent benefit, Whitehall could save £3 billion a year.
"John Townend is not the voice of the Government, despite his finance job," one Westminster insider told the Herald.
"But the fact that he can say this suggests that he finds an echo in the higher ranks of Government, probably from Peter Lilley, the Social Security Secretary, and William Waldegrave at the Treasury."
"But not from Ken Clarke, he's not that kind of Chancellor. He believes in the welfare system as a safety net."
However, Mr Townend is adamant about the core message of his speech.
"I am willing to bet that if we phase out these benefits, in five years time the number of unmarried single mothers will decrease," he says.