Pro-life group LIFE will sit on a Government advice forum on sexual health, providing more balance and a wider range of views.
LIFE has been invited to join the group, which also includes pro-abortion organisations Marie Stopes International (MSI) and FPA, formerly the Family Planning Association.
However BPAS, which used to be called the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, will not be on the panel after the Government decided it was “not feasible” to invite both MSI and BPAS.
Represent
The forum replaces the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, which was disbanded last year.
Stuart Cowie, LIFE’s head of education, said: “We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past.”
Mr Cowie said reducing the number of abortions should not be “unpalatable to anyone else, regardless of their position on when life begins”.
Balance
Ann Furedi, the chief executive of BPAS, said her organisation was “disappointed and troubled”, both at not being included on the panel and at LIFE’s inclusion.
The Department of Health said: “To provide balance, it is important that a wide range of interests and views are represented on the forum.
“Marie Stopes International and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have similar interests. We offered them shared membership but they declined, and after careful consideration we concluded that it was not feasible to invite both organisations.”
BPAS says the Department withdrew the offer of ‘shared membership’.
Trivial
Also in the group are Brook and the Sex Education Forum, which both want compulsory sex education in schools.
In February this year BPAS, Britain’s largest abortion provider, lost a controversial battle in the High Court to allow women to have abortions at home.
And last year the UK’s first ever abortion ad, placed by MSI and shown on national TV, faced criticism for ‘trivialising human life’.