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20 MPs took staff from anti-abortion group seeking to replicate US backlash

Exclusive: Pro-choice and secular groups warn that scheme is part of strategy to “undo” progress on women’s rights

20 MPs took staff from anti-abortion group seeking to replicate US backlash
March For Life, an annual rally organised by the UK's anti-abortion movement. | Sipa USA / Alamy Stock Photo
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A UK anti-abortion group that wants to replicate America’s backlash against reproductive rights has placed more than a dozen interns in MPs’ offices since 2010, openDemocracy can reveal.

Christian Action, Research, and Education (CARE) has provided free researchers to 20 MPs as part of its Leadership Programme, which offers 11-month placements in Westminster – and all-access Commons passes – to recent university graduates.

Of those, 13 continued to take the interns despite revelations about the charity’s position on LGBTQ+ rights in 2012. It emerged that CARE had sponsored a conference about homosexuality that promoted gay ‘conversion therapy’ and included sessions on “mentoring the sexually broken”.