The article linked below included factual errors and false accusations about our work, which we are highlighting and correcting in this post.
Stella Creasy: ‘When did we agree that motherhood had to be a struggle?’ by Rosamund Urwin was recently published in The Sunday Times on 16th January 2022.
Whilst in the statements made by Stella Creasy we are not specifically named, we are the activists behind the campaign she refers to, and our billboard banner along with our brand name is printed directly in between these statements of defamation about our campaign in Creasy’s constituency.
Here is the portion of the article that, by all implication, is referring to CBR UK and our work:
On MPs’ safety in the wake of David Amess’s death, she says that members don’t want to hide away. Her surgeries have moved online during the pandemic but she is routinely stopped in the supermarket and on the Underground by constituents. She has faced frightening moments of her own: during a campaign to ensure women in Northern Ireland had access to abortion, she said she felt “physically sick” after being targeted by anti-abortionist activists in her constituency.
[This image was used in the article with the caption:] "Anti-abortion campaigners target Creasy on billboards near her home in 2019 @STELLACREASY / TWITTER"
“My own experience of police security hasn’t been brilliant,” she says. “When I was targeted by these activists — who were telling everyone that I was a Nazi and that I killed babies — the CPS declined to prosecute, which was frustrating because this was a harbinger of what was to come. If we let third-party organisations start whipping up hate mobs against MPs, that’s very dangerous.”
Our corrections and response:
1.
On MPs’ safety in the wake of David Amess’s death, she says that members don’t want to hide away. Her surgeries have moved online during the pandemic but she is routinely stopped in the supermarket and on the Underground by constituents. She has faced frightening moments of her own: during a campaign to ensure women in Northern Ireland had access to abortion, she said she felt “physically sick” after being targeted by anti-abortionist activists in her constituency.
Putting our campaign in the context of the murder of David Amess is highly and dangerously misleading. How can an awareness campaign - highlighting a policy of an elected MP to her constituents - be comparable to the murder of an MP?
Whilst we are not specifically named, we are the activists behind the campaign, and our billboard banner is printed directly underneath.
2.
…during a campaign to ensure women in Northern Ireland had access to abortion, she said she felt “physically sick” after being targeted by anti-abortionist activists in her constituency.
It was not during the Northern Ireland campaign - which had already been voted on when we started our campaign. But was in fact during the campaign to decriminalise abortion in the UK - to make it available for any reason up to 28 weeks, including sex-selection abortion.
All the details of our campaign are laid out clearly here on our campaign page.
3.
Under the photo of our billboard of a living 9-week baby with our logo, it is written:
“When I was targeted by these activists — who were telling everyone that I was a Nazi and that I killed babies — the CPS declined to prosecute, which was frustrating because this was a harbinger of what was to come. If we let third-party organisations start whipping up hate mobs against MPs, that’s very dangerous.”
Firstly, none of our team or volunteers were telling anyone that Stella was a Nazi and that she killed babies. We simply showed what she supported, informing her constituents where she stood, voted for and campaigned for, on the killing of babies up to 28 weeks for any or no reason.
When images of human beings who have suffered violence are displayed, to complain that YOU are the victim is deeply disturbing, particularly when you were the one to promote the policy.
Our call to action to our followers, was simply to “email” or “tweet” Stella Creasy and demand that she “Stop promoting human rights abuses of children in the womb”. We explicitly asked people to “PLEASE KEEP ALL COMMUNICATION POLITE AND RESPECTFUL”.
Criticism of politicians' voting behaviour and policy making, should always be protected. If you agree, please share this article to ensure we raise awareness of those politicians who think otherwise.