ProLife Alliance

ProLife Alliance (or simply ProLife) was an anti-abortion, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2004. Since that time it has survived as an advocacy group. It is opposed to any form of euthanasia and opposes human cloning, abortion and experiments on human embryos. It supports and guaranteed maternity and paternity leave. Its leader is Dominica Roberts.

The Pro-Life Alliance was founded by two anti-abortion activists, Josephine Quintavalle and her son Bruno Quintavalle. They contested the 1997 general election, bringing about litigation against the BBC over the latter's refusal to screen the PLA's party political broadcast. The party contested 25 of the 659 constituencies and attracted a total of 19,355 votes. It gained over 1% of the vote in only five constituencies in England and Wales, although did slightly better in Scotland, where it averaged 1.5% of the vote and secured over 2% in three seats. Its vote share declined further in the 1999 Scottish Parliamentary elections, 2001 general election, and 2004 European Parliament election. It disbanded in 2004. Much of its support transferred to the Christian Peoples Alliance, a minor Christian democratic movement.

History

The Pro-Life Alliance was established as a political party in 1997 by Josephine Quintavalle and her son Bruno Quintavalle.[1] Its membership consisted a high percentage of Roman Catholics.[2]

It contested 56 seats in the 1997 general election.[1] In total, it attracted 19,355 votes, averaging of 345 votes per constituency.[1] In England and Wales, the PLA gained over 1% of the vote in only five constituencies: Billericay, Leyton and Wanstead, Solihull, Manchester Withington, and Doncaster Central.[1] In Scotland, it contested nine seats, all of them in the Greater Glasgow area. There, it averaged 1.5% of the vote and gained over 2% in three seats.[1] That it did better in this part of Scotland rather than in England or Wales might reflect the greater proportion of Roman Catholics living in the Greater Glasgow area.[1]

The refusal of the BBC to show its television party political broadcast led to litigation, in which it was ultimately unsuccessful.[3]

The PLA contested the 1999 Scottish Parliamentary elections—the very first since the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament—but its vote was less than that of the 1997 general election.[4] This was despite the fact that the Scottish Parliament election utilised a form of proportional representation which benefited minor parties, a contrast to the general election's use of first-past-the-post voting.[1] The sociologist Steve Bruce suggested that the decline in the Scottish vote may have been because voters were "too excited" by the restoration of their parliament after 292 years to "be interested in apparently fringe issues" such as abortion.[5]

The PLA fielded 37 candidates at the 2001 general election.[5] Its vote was lower than in 1997; it averaged 255 votes per seat, and 30 of its candidates polled less than 1%.[5] 26 of its candidate came last in their respective constituencies.[5]

In entering the 2004 European Parliament election, it had difficulty attracting candidates willing to stand, the result of which was that seven of the 22 standing for election in England contested more than one electoral region.[5] The ProLife Alliance gained 20,393 votes in the 2004 European Parliament election. The PLA disbanded as a political party in December 2004, and did not contest any seats in the 2005 general election.[5] Much of the party's support subsequently went to a minor Christian democratic party, the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA), with many of the CPA's electoral candidates having been former PLA candidates.[6]

In 2003, the Department of Health (DOH) significantly reduced the statistical information it provided about abortions for suspected foetal abnormalities. The ProLife Alliance challenged this under the Freedom of Information Act, and this challenge was supported by the Information Commissioner. An appeal by the DOH to the Information Tribunal failed.[7] The Tribunal rejected the DOH view that personal information would be unreasonably endangered, and commented on the Department's duty to ensure compliance with the Abortion Act and its failure to scrutinise reporting forms "either clinically or substantively".[8] The Department first planned to appeal to the High Court,[9] but subsequently conceded and made the requested information available in July 2011.

The sociologist Steve Bruce was of the view that the Pro-Life Alliance's inability to achieve political success reflected the "relative unpopularity of abortion as an election issue" in the United Kingdom.[1] In his view, its "failure" at the ballot box demonstrated "a failure to win the argument", with the majority of the British population believing that abortion should remain legal.[5] A 2005 poll found that over 70% of Britons believed that abortion should be always or mostly legal while less than a quarter thought that it should be always or mostly illegal.[5]

Election results

House of Commons


House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Election year # of total votes % of overall vote # of seats won Rank
1997[10] 19,332Increase 0.1%Increase 0 Steady 18
2001[11] 9,453 Decrease 0.0% Decrease 0 Steady 20


See also

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bruce 2012, p. 123.
  2. ↑ Bruce 2012, p. 130.
  3. ↑ Regina v. British Broadcasting Corporation (Appellants) ex parte Prolife Alliance Archived 25 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Bruce 2012, pp. 123–124.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bruce 2012, p. 124.
  6. ↑ Bruce 2012, pp. 130, 134.
  7. ↑ Jane Dreaper, "Late abortions data to be public", BBC News, 15 October 2009
  8. ↑ Tribunal Decision, October 2009, paras 81,82).
  9. ↑ "Government seeks secrecy on cleft palate abortions", Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2009
  10. ↑ "2005 General election results". UK Political Info. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "Election 2010 Results". BBC News. Retrieved 22 January 2014.

Sources

  • Bruce, Steve (2012). "Politics and Religion in the United Kingdom". Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Official website
  • "European Election: United Kingdom Result". BBC News. 2004-06-14.
  • "ProLife Alliance". BBC News. 2001-05-21.
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