Trade unions, MPs and reproductive rights campaigners unite against growing threat to abortion rights

Abortion Rights warns Reform UK is attempting to import a US-style culture war over abortion as campaigners prepare to Stand Up for Choice in Westminster

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trade unions, MPs, healthcare providers and reproductive rights campaigners will come together in Parliament Square this Saturday, 5 September, for Stand Up for Choice 2026, Abortion Rights’ annual counter-demonstration to March for Life UK.

The demonstration comes in the same week as Reform UK holds its national conference in Birmingham, amid growing concern that the party and figures around it are attempting to turn abortion into a new front in Britain’s culture wars.

Representatives from NEU, PCS, UNISON Camden and MSI Reproductive Choices, alongside Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, will join Abortion Rights and other campaigners in Westminster.

Abortion Rights says the political threat can no longer be dismissed as something happening only in the US.

Nigel Farage has previously called Britain’s 24-week abortion time limit “utterly ludicrous” and argued that Parliament should debate reducing it. Reform’s Head of Policy, James Orr, has expressed opposition to abortion, while analysis by openDemocracy and the Fuller Project found a sharp rise in abortion-related content from Reform-supporting and far-right accounts.

Kerry Abel, Chair of Abortion Rights, said:

“Reform are trying to manufacture a culture war around abortion in Britain, borrowing directly from a playbook we have already seen cause devastating damage in the US.

“They want to take an issue where there is overwhelming public support for choice and drag it backwards.

“This week anti-abortion voices are gathering around Reform’s conference. On Saturday, we’ll be gathering in Parliament Square to send a very different message: Britain will not follow the US down this road.

“We are the pro-choice majority and we will not be complacent about our rights.”

Stand Up for Choice takes place as March for Life UK returns to London for its annual anti-abortion demonstration.

They’re marching to roll back our rights. We’re standing up for choice.

Abortion Rights says the presence of trade unions, healthcare organisations, politicians and campaigners at Saturday’s demonstration demonstrates the breadth of opposition to attempts to roll back reproductive rights.

The demonstration begins at 1pm at the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square, with speeches beginning at approximately 1.15pm.

Stand Up for Choice 2026
Saturday 5 September 2026
1pm
Millicent Fawcett statue, Parliament Square, London

ENDS

Notes to editors

Media contact:
Kerry Abel, Chair of Abortion Rights
+44 7979 535242

About Abortion Rights:

Abortion Rights is the only grassroots pro-choice campaign in Britain, working for safe, free, legal and accessible abortion.

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Stand Up for Choice 2026:
Saturday 5 September 2026
1pm
Millicent Fawcett statue, Parliament Square, London

Stand Up for Choice is Abortion Rights’ annual counter-protest to March for Life UK, bringing together pro-choice campaigners, trade unions, healthcare professionals and supporters to defend reproductive rights.