Chapter 2: Opposition to Abortion: A UK History

This chapter begins with an outline of the history of abortion law and practice across the United Kingdom (UK), including the role that religion and religious actors have played in the opposition to abortion. It will use key examples to illustrate the ways in which abortion came to be seen as a medical rather than a moral concern, and how this was later institutionalised in the 1967 Abortion Act. It will outline the development of abortion opposition and how this became cemented in the development of specific anti-abortion organisations. Throughout the chapter, we seek to show the variations in policy and practice between the four nations of the UK. Whilst the evidence shows that the tactics and strategies of anti-abortion activism have a long history of crossing borders both within and beyond the UK, it is important to recognise that they are always locally interpreted. This explains, as we will later show, the abject failure of the plan to introduce United States (US)-style clinic blockades to the UK by those involved in Operation Rescue.