Last month, Christian Hacking left CBR UK to launch his Vote Life project, running independent candidates under the pro-life banner. The project had two main goals, to make abortion a voting issue and to get the beautiful image of a living baby in the womb through the doors of whole constituencies - making the most of the free Royal Mail drop for every candidate.
22 candidates in 22 constituencies
In just over 2 weeks, 22 candidates (9 of whom are pictured in photo above) had been successfully registered around the country - a process that required 10 local constituents to sign a form of support for each candidate.
I was honoured to stand as an independent candidate for Walthamstow, running against Stella Creasy. I have a history of campaigning to expose her extreme abortion policies through my work with CBR UK.
It was a beautiful thing to witness the growing momentum of the 22 individual candidates who were willing to be a public face for the issue. Some had put themselves forward to be paper candidates only, but through the encouragement of watching others step out, many ended up filming campaign videos, as well as speaking at hustings and to the media.
Candidates ranged from Joshua Morland, a student at Warwick university who had never voted before, hosting a student event at his uni on abortion, to Pauline Peachey, a pensioner who runs PASE (Post Abortion Support for Everyone) who went up against pro-abortion Diana Johnson in Hull. Pauline spoke to the BBC “defending” the leaflets that went through the doors. It really has started a powerful movement.
Reaching over 1 million households
We thank God that Vote Life achieved the objective of reaching over 1 million homes with the leaflet. This means that over 1 million homes have seen the humanity of a 6 week baby in the womb. Not only did the leaflet humanise the unborn baby; it raised the alarm of the plight of both baby and mother.
Vote Life received hundreds of messages complaining about the “graphic” images on the leaflets. It never ceases to amaze me how people can call a living image “graphic” and “disturbing”. The same people often conclude their emails by saying “it is a woman’s right to choose”, so it is quite telling that the image has made their viewpoint so uncomfortable to hold that they have been moved to complain. This is nothing new from historical injustices, in order to support an injustice, the victim group must be dehumanised, which is why it is the job of every social reformer to re-humanise the victims of an injustice.
As well as the complaints, there were also stories of candidates meeting people at the count results night saying things like "I will never forget your leaflet - that was impactful".
Bringing the abortion issue to the table
At the hustings, where candidates gather on a panel to be questioned by local people, Vote Life candidates were certainly able to raise the issue - sometimes to the sound of murmurs or heckles from the audience.
Watch video of Vote Life candidates speaking at their hustings:
In my constituency of Walthamstow, the only hustings was a climate change themed one. Upon discovering the event, knowing my rights as a candidate, I invited myself (as my invite must have got lost in the post!). The organisers insisted that no issues were to be discussed unless they related to the climate, oh and that they would take “a zero tolerance approach to any harassment of anyone else in the room”. I was happy to hear that - but knew that they were referring to Stella Creasy’s previous false allegations against CBR UK and our work.
She even released a video falsely accusing our leaflet of being "inaccurate, inflammatory and deeply offensive". Here was my response:
I was grateful to be able to highlight the plight of unborn babies and their mothers by connecting abortion to climate issues. I was also grateful for the lady in the audience who stood up to implore the moderator that she and the heckling audience should let me finish my points. You can watch the Walthamstow hustings here:
Christian Hacking, founder of the Vote Life campaign, comments:
“We praise God for His favour on this project. In just 6 weeks we have gathered 22 candidates, and distributed over 1 million leaflets bearing an image of a baby in the womb, fearfully and wonderfully made. On this leaflet are not just the facts but a compassionate plea for women harmed by abortion to share their story. Vote Life is the only political movement seeking reparations for women harmed by the UK’s multi million pound abortion industry.”
“We look forward, under the Vote Life banner, to continue to work towards making abortion a voting issue so that we can see pregnant women and babies protected under law.”