The announcement of the British general election has resulted in a significant pro-life victory in the UK.
In what is termed “wash up”, or the enactment of remaining legislation at the dissolution Parliament, anti family sex education clauses were dropped from the education bill. These clauses would have made it mandatory for all schools to provide, among other things explicit Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) for children as young as five and would have forbidden parents from removing their children from sex education classes once they turned fifteen.
The Bill, known as the Children, Schools and Family Bill in its original form would also have made it mandatory for Catholic schools to provide “non-judgmental” information about abortion and contraception to students.
Widely different views were expressed about this with Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, who heavily backed the PSHE legislation, expressing his disappointment,“ This is a very significant set back which will deny many young people proper and balanced sex and relationships education.” According to Balls
John Smeaton, executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in contrast wrote in his blog on Wednesday that the removal of SRE and PSHE regulations represented a “huge pro-life victory.”
