Scottish Pro-Lifers Target Students

By Patrick Goodenough

CNS London Bureau Chief

21 June, 2000

London (CNSNews.com) - A new and outspoken Christian pro-life group in Scotland has been threatened with legal action if it continues to hand out anti-abortion leaflets to pupils outside schools.

Since its launch a year ago, Precious Life has been targeting abortion clinics and contraception advice centers, and this week it began handing out leaflets detailing and illustrating abortion methods to teenagers arriving and leaving schools. Scotland's devolved ruling Executive called the organization "a small group of extremists" and warned it would prevent Precious Life from harassing pupils. Education authorities have warned they will call in the police, and Scotland's biggest teachers' union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), also has attacked the campaign.

The group's leader, Jim Dowson, said in an interview Wednesday that the aim in handing out 50,000 leaflets was to counter pro-abortion propaganda he said was being fed to most school pupils in Scotland. "Seventy-five percent of state [senior] schools refuse any pro-life group, no matter how mild they are, to be involved in the educational process. Yet they allow the pro-abortion camp in. They have the Pro-Choice Action Group in, they have Family Planning in, there's no [restriction] there." This situation meant there was "no balanced argument" put forward to the teenagers. "We've done this to highlight the injustice in the school system. The pro-choice argument is being put forward without any counterbalance."

Dowson said Precious Life, formed a year ago in Scotland as an offshoot of a successful group in Northern Ireland, acted strictly within the law and would continue to campaign. "We're not breaking any law. This is a democracy and we will not be intimidated by the authorities or the teachers' union." He said the EIS union had passed a motion at a recent conference - even before the current school campaign began - calling for Precious Life to be banned from schools. "[Pro-abortion] groups are absolutely terrified that the truth will be out in the public domain."

'Graphic' The group has been accused of handing out "controversial" and "graphic" literature to women in a bid to persuade them to change their minds about having abortions. "It's a lot of nonsense," Dowson said in response to the charge. "There's nothing scaremongering about it. It just describes [various methods of abortion]. People say the facts are shocking. Well if even pro-choice people say they are shocking, doesn't that tell us something? "If you're shocked by the truth, if you're shocked by what you're engaged in, perhaps you shouldn't be engaged in it."

Dowson said Precious Life rejects the "extremist" label applied by critics - and even by some pro-life groups. "We've had 32 years of abortion. Abortions have increased drastically. People have to honest and ask themselves - have methods used up to now really worked? No. "It's time to go back to the drawing-board. We've been lulled into treating abortion as a philosophical argument. We should not be sitting around a table discussing abortion as a civilized thing. We should be using emotive language. "When people in the street think about abortion, they think of choice. We have to replace that, as people in America have managed to do. When people think about abortion, they should think about blood ..."

Dowson said Precious Life would soon extend its campaign south of the Scottish border, initially targeting the English cities of Liverpool and London. Members will picket clinics and homes of doctors who carry out abortions, and will publicize the names of the doctors in their newsletter. "They make a lifestyle choice to murder babies so we have a choice to expose them to their neighbors and publicize what they do for a living."

Opponents say the group's activities could eventually result in violence against abortionists. Asked if there was anything Precious Life would stop at in order to prevent an abortion, Dowson said: "We keep totally within the law, 100 percent." Nonetheless, he said the legal "goalposts" were being moved all the time. Activists had been arrested simply for standing and picketing outside clinics. One elderly member had been arrested for standing outside a clinic holding a picture of the Virgin Mary, he said. In all cases, no charges were brought. "This is an abuse of civil power."

For too long prolife work in Scotland had been labeled as Roman Catholic, said Dawson. In a country where 86 percent of people are Protestant, this had limited prolife activity to the fringes. Although Precious Life members comprise both Roman Catholics and "orthodox, Calvinistic Protestants," there was no "wishy-washy" ecumenical activity, he said. "We've got extremely strong Catholics and extremely strong Protestants, who do their own thing. No joint prayers, no joint singing hymns. You cannot get further apart than a Calvinistic Scottish Protestant and a Roman Catholic in Scotland. But on the streets they stand shoulder-to-shoulder." To help finance its campaigns, Precious Life was recently given a sum - reportedly $80,000 - by a newly-formed prolife network called Youth Defense International, involving groups in Ireland, Spain, France and Australia.