AN anti-abortion group has placed more than a dozen interns in MP offices across the UK since 2010, including one SNP member, according to reports.
Investigative news site openDemocracy has reported that Christian Action, Research, and Education (CARE), which looks to replicate the US backlash against abortion in the UK, has placed unpaid researchers in the offices of MPs including the SNP's Lisa Cameron.
The placements were part of the group’s leadership programme which offered 11-month-long placements in Westminster to graduates that came with all access Commons passes.
Following revelations about the group’s hardline stance on LGBT+ rights in 2012, 13 of the MPs continued to take on interns from the charity. This was in spite of reports that CARE had sponsored a talk that promoted conversion therapy and included sessions on “mentoring the sexually broken”.
CARE has boasted about putting the scheme’s participants in “real positions of responsibility”, with a number of former interns ending up as cabinet ministers and senior civil servants.
Tory MP Stephen Crabb was one of those and says the programme gave him a “grounding of the Commons, politically”.
Chief executive of the National Secular Society, Stephen Evans, said that politicians were being “used” by CARE to promote a hardline conservative agenda.
“Politicians must not allow themselves to be used by religious hardliners who want to undo all the progress we’ve made on the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people and minority communities in this country,” he said.
CARE welcomed the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe Vs Wade, which had guaranteed abortion rights for American women.
When asked by openDemocracy whether CARE wanted to replicate the American anti-abortion movement’s success in the UK, its media adviser Justin Doherty said: “Absolutely.”
Kerry Abel, chair of Abortion Rights UK, told openDemocracy: “By working with MPs and offering free interns, the organisation is actively trying to change our law on abortion in an ideological way that ignores evidence-based health advice and access needs for women.”
She added: “These organisations should not have an undue hold on our democracy and a full independent investigation should be held as to who is trying to court our elected representatives.”
Thirteen of the 20 MPs who took on interns from CARE are still sitting, including Cameron, four Tory MPs, seven Labour MPs and ex-LibDem leader Tim Farron.
Labour MPs David Lammy, Liz Kendall, Catherine McKinnel and Sharon Hodgson said they no longer associated with the group after reports on the controversial 2012 conference emerged.
And openDemocracy report that they have seen data which confirms this.
Farron also said he cut ties with CARE and labelled the views expressed at the 2012 conference as “grossly offensive, homophobic and wrong”.
However, a majority of the 20 MPs continued to offer internships to CARE, including six Tory MPs and five Labour MPs. They include sitting Tory MPs Gary Streeter and Caroline Ansell, who have both repeatedly voted against liberalising abortion.
The Labour MPs who are still members of the Commons include Jon Cruddas, and Janet Daby, who took on an assistant last year just months after apologising and resigning as shadow women and equalities minister for saying registrars have the right to object to gay marriage.
When contacted by openDemocracy, only one MP, Labour’s Barry Sheerman, replied when asked about the work the interns had done, whether they had access to constituents and casework, and why they had continued to accept donations in kind from CARE despite the reports on the 2012 conference.
He said: “I have never been lobbied on any issue by any intern provided by CARE, nor have any attempted to do so. CARE interns have not worked as caseworkers.”
He added that he had consistently voted in favour of LGBT+ and abortion rights.
A CARE spokesperson said: “The Leadership Programme is a highly respected educational work experience programme for young people interested in politics. Graduates are prohibited from lobbying on behalf of CARE whilst on placement.
“CARE has always said that, in any pregnancy, the lives of both mother and baby are of equal value. This means we support compassionate initiatives to get alongside anyone who experiences a crisis pregnancy.
“We recognise that same-sex marriage is now legal across the UK.”
Lisa Cameron has been contacted for comment.
