Read Next
Guest Column
Hyde Amendment's 50th: Renewing the commitment to end taxpayer-funded abortion
Rep. Chris Smith
·Spotlight Articles
International·By Nancy Flanders
Groups outraged as UK includes abortion in bereavement leave
The United Kingdom (UK) announced last week that it is expanding its bereavement leave eligibility to include abortion as a form of pregnancy loss alongside miscarriage.
The UK announced it will begin offering two weeks of unpaid bereavement leave for those who suffer a miscarriage, undergo an abortion before 24 weeks, or lose an embryo during IVF transfer, including via surrogacy.
Critics call it an "insult" to liken the experience of miscarriage to abortion.
While some say the policy is needed, they also note that it brings a serious question into the spotlight: are human embryos human beings worthy of love and grief, or clumps of cells that can be destroyed as though they are meaningless?
According to reports, beginning in April 2027, bereavement leave will be expanded to include workers and their partners who suffer a miscarriage or who undergo an abortion. It also includes those who have an unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer, even in cases of surrogacy.
According to the new rules:
Leave will be available to employees who experience all types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks (including terminations and IVF embryo transfer loss). Leave will be available to the person who experienced the pregnancy loss, the other biological parent, partners, and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
Employees will be eligible to take two weeks of unpaid leave on their first day of employment, and it can be spaced out of the course of 56 weeks.
Companies are not allowed to ask the employees for proof of the miscarriage or abortion, and are not allowed to fire an employee for taking the leave.
“No one should have to fight for time to grieve,” Kate Dearden, minister for UK’s Future of Work, said. “These changes back people going through some of the hardest moments of life, whoever they are and wherever they work.”
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) responded to the announcement, saying:
The policy is an insult to those in genuine need of better bereavement leave legislation, which should exist because something, or someone, of significance has been lost.
Abortion deliberately brings about the end of the unborn child whose loss the state will now recognise as grounds for mourning, though not defending.
On the one hand, the organization said, the government believes it is acceptable to kill preborn children through abortion because they are mere "clumps of cells," but, on the other hand, believes that the very people who sought that preborn child's death deserve time to mourn the loss. SPUC asked:
If an unborn human life is significant enough for its loss to warrant statutory bereavement leave, why does that recognition disappear when considering whether that same life deserves protection?
The same goes for embryos whose lives are lost during the IVF process. More human beings die during IVF than are born, and the fertility industry routinely destroys these young lives or keeps them frozen for decades. Yet parents who lose a child to IVF will now receive bereavement leave.
Are these embryos human children worthy of mourning or not?
Helen Gibson, founder of Surrogacy Concern, said:
Extending bereavement leave to commissioning parents through surrogacy risks further entrenching a harmful practice which we should be working to eliminate, not further normalise.
The policy admits what the fertility and abortion industries ignore in the name of financial profit: human embryos are human beings whose lives matter, and whose deaths are always tragic losses.
John Deighan, CEO of SPUC, stated:
SPUC will always stand for the dignity of the unborn, so we will always welcome policies that allow mothers to grieve miscarried children.
The tragic and unintentional loss of babies wounds families and parents should not be forced back into work before they are ready. This scope of this announcement, however, is too wide and is an insult to those who have experienced miscarriage.
Abortion trauma is real, but rewarding abortion with a policy designed to comfort those who miscarry is horrific; it puts abortion on an equal footing to miscarriage—it is not.
Whilst the child has equal dignity in both scenarios, one requires intentional violence to end destroy life, the other is a grave and spontaneous tragedy.
As Deighan noted, "The Government have shown that they have no consistent ideas when it comes to life in the womb. Is it valuable and something to love and grieve or not? We know the answer.”
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Rep. Chris Smith
·
Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·
Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·
Guest Column
Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves
·
Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·
Human Interest
Isabella Childs
·
Abortion Pill
Nancy Flanders
·
Issues
Nancy Flanders
·
Analysis
Nancy Flanders
·
Opinion
Nancy Flanders
·
Abortion Pill
Nancy Flanders
·International·By Nancy Flanders
Groups outraged as UK includes abortion in bereavement leave
The United Kingdom (UK) announced last week that it is expanding its bereavement leave eligibility to include abortion as a form of pregnancy loss alongside miscarriage.
The UK announced it will begin offering two weeks of unpaid bereavement leave for those who suffer a miscarriage, undergo an abortion before 24 weeks, or lose an embryo during IVF transfer, including via surrogacy.
Critics call it an "insult" to liken the experience of miscarriage to abortion.
While some say the policy is needed, they also note that it brings a serious question into the spotlight: are human embryos human beings worthy of love and grief, or clumps of cells that can be destroyed as though they are meaningless?
According to reports, beginning in April 2027, bereavement leave will be expanded to include workers and their partners who suffer a miscarriage or who undergo an abortion. It also includes those who have an unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer, even in cases of surrogacy.
According to the new rules:
Leave will be available to employees who experience all types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks (including terminations and IVF embryo transfer loss). Leave will be available to the person who experienced the pregnancy loss, the other biological parent, partners, and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
Employees will be eligible to take two weeks of unpaid leave on their first day of employment, and it can be spaced out of the course of 56 weeks.
Companies are not allowed to ask the employees for proof of the miscarriage or abortion, and are not allowed to fire an employee for taking the leave.
“No one should have to fight for time to grieve,” Kate Dearden, minister for UK’s Future of Work, said. “These changes back people going through some of the hardest moments of life, whoever they are and wherever they work.”
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) responded to the announcement, saying:
The policy is an insult to those in genuine need of better bereavement leave legislation, which should exist because something, or someone, of significance has been lost.
Abortion deliberately brings about the end of the unborn child whose loss the state will now recognise as grounds for mourning, though not defending.
On the one hand, the organization said, the government believes it is acceptable to kill preborn children through abortion because they are mere "clumps of cells," but, on the other hand, believes that the very people who sought that preborn child's death deserve time to mourn the loss. SPUC asked:
If an unborn human life is significant enough for its loss to warrant statutory bereavement leave, why does that recognition disappear when considering whether that same life deserves protection?
The same goes for embryos whose lives are lost during the IVF process. More human beings die during IVF than are born, and the fertility industry routinely destroys these young lives or keeps them frozen for decades. Yet parents who lose a child to IVF will now receive bereavement leave.
Are these embryos human children worthy of mourning or not?
Helen Gibson, founder of Surrogacy Concern, said:
Extending bereavement leave to commissioning parents through surrogacy risks further entrenching a harmful practice which we should be working to eliminate, not further normalise.
The policy admits what the fertility and abortion industries ignore in the name of financial profit: human embryos are human beings whose lives matter, and whose deaths are always tragic losses.
John Deighan, CEO of SPUC, stated:
SPUC will always stand for the dignity of the unborn, so we will always welcome policies that allow mothers to grieve miscarried children.
The tragic and unintentional loss of babies wounds families and parents should not be forced back into work before they are ready. This scope of this announcement, however, is too wide and is an insult to those who have experienced miscarriage.
Abortion trauma is real, but rewarding abortion with a policy designed to comfort those who miscarry is horrific; it puts abortion on an equal footing to miscarriage—it is not.
Whilst the child has equal dignity in both scenarios, one requires intentional violence to end destroy life, the other is a grave and spontaneous tragedy.
As Deighan noted, "The Government have shown that they have no consistent ideas when it comes to life in the womb. Is it valuable and something to love and grieve or not? We know the answer.”
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Rep. Chris Smith
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·Guest Column
Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves
·Issues
Bridget Sielicki
·Human Interest
Isabella Childs
·Abortion Pill
Nancy Flanders
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·Analysis
Nancy Flanders
·Opinion
Nancy Flanders
·Abortion Pill
Nancy Flanders
·