3 Whitacre Mews
Stannary Street
London
SE11 4AB

Tel: 020 7091 7091
Fax: 020 7820 3131
Web: www.spuc.org.uk

While the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is primarily an educational and lobbying organisation, they also respond to requests for assistance from expectant mothers facing difficulties. They draw on their experience and extensive contacts to see that these women receive the help they need to avoid abortion, which they have done in many cases, often in spite of very difficult circumstances. Counselling for those hurt by abortion is provided by Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH), run by the SPUC Educational Research Trust.

ARCH (formerly BVA) was set up in 1987 in response to the many requests for help received from women who had had abortions and were now experiencing emotional difficulties which severely affected their quality of life. In addition to counselling, ARCH is engaged in educational work, including press and media interviews, and offers training both to those who have come through its healing programme, and to other interested professionals, to counsel others suffering after abortion. The principal aims of SPUC are as follows:

• To affirm, defend and promote the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception, and to defend and protect human life generally.
• To reassert the principle laid down in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1958) that the child needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.
• To defend, assist and promote the life and welfare of mothers during pregnancy and of their children from the time of conception up to, during, and after birth.
• To examine existing or proposed laws, legislation or regulations relating to abortion and to support or oppose such as appropriate.

Contact SPUC at the address above for details of your local branch (division) and for a list of publications.