ProLife Alliance (PLA) or simplyProLife, was ananti-abortion,single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2004. Since that time it has continued as anadvocacy group. It is opposed to any form ofeuthanasia and opposes humancloning,abortion and experiments on humanembryos. It supports guaranteed maternity and paternity leave. Its leader is Dominica Roberts.
The Pro-Life Alliance was founded by two anti-abortion activists, Josephine Quintavalle and her sonBruno Quintavalle. They contested the1997 general election, bringing aboutlitigation against theBBC over the latter's refusal to screen the PLA'sparty political broadcast. The party contested 56 of the 659 constituencies and attracted a total of 19,332 votes.[1] It gained over 1% of the vote in only five constituencies in England and Wales, although did slightly better in Scotland, where it averaged 1.5% of the vote and secured over 2% in three seats. Its vote share declined further in the1999 Scottish Parliamentary elections,2001 general election, and2004 European Parliament election. It disbanded in 2004.
The Pro-Life Alliance was established as a political party in October 1996[2] by Josephine Quintavalle and her son Bruno Quintavalle.[3] Its membership consisted a high percentage of Roman Catholics.[4]
It contested 56 seats in the 1997 general election.[3] In total, it attracted 19,332 votes, averaging of 345 votes per constituency.[3] In England and Wales, the PLA gained over 1% of the vote in only five constituencies: Billericay, Leyton and Wanstead, Solihull, Manchester Withington, and Doncaster Central.[3] In Scotland, it contested nine seats, all of them in the Greater Glasgow area. There, it averaged 1.5% of the vote and gained over 2% in three seats.[3] That it did better in this part of Scotland rather than in England or Wales might reflect the greater proportion of Roman Catholics living in the Greater Glasgow area.[3]
The refusal of theBBC to show its televisionparty political broadcast led to litigation (R (ProLife Alliance) v BBC), in which it was ultimately unsuccessful.[5]
The PLA contested the1999 Scottish Parliamentary elections—the very first since the re-establishment of theScottish Parliament—but its vote was less than that of the 1997 general election.[6] This was despite the fact that the Scottish Parliament election utilised a form ofproportional representation which benefited minor parties, a contrast to the general election's use offirst-past-the-post voting.[3] The sociologist Steve Bruce suggested that the decline in the Scottish vote may have been because voters were "too excited" by the restoration of their parliament after 292 years to "be interested in apparently fringe issues" such as abortion.[7]
The PLA fielded 37 candidates at the2001 general election.[7][2] Its vote was lower than in 1997; it averaged 255 votes per seat, and 30 of its candidates polled less than 1%.[7] 26 of its candidates came last in their respective constituencies.[7]
In entering the2004 European Parliament election, it had difficulty attracting candidates willing to stand, the result of which was that seven of the 22 standing for election in England contested more than one electoral region.[7] The ProLife Alliance gained 20,393 votes in the2004 European Parliament election, equating to 0.1% of votes cast.[8] A few months later, in December 2004, the PLA disbanded as a political party and did not contest any seats in the2005 general election.[7] Much of the party's support subsequently went to a minorChristian democratic party, theChristian Peoples Alliance (CPA), with many of the CPA's electoral candidates having been former PLA candidates.[9]
In 2003, theDepartment of Health significantly reduced the statistical information it provided about abortions for suspected foetal abnormalities. The ProLife Alliance challenged this under theFreedom of Information Act, and this challenge was supported by theInformation Commissioner. An appeal by the Department of Health to the Information Tribunal failed.[10] The Tribunal rejected the Department's view that personal information would be unreasonably endangered, and commented on the Department's duty to ensure compliance with theAbortion Act and its failure to scrutinise reporting forms "either clinically or substantively".[11] The Department first planned to appeal to the High Court,[12] but subsequently conceded and made the requested information available in July 2011.
The sociologist Steve Bruce was of the view that the Pro-Life Alliance's inability to achieve political success reflected the "relative unpopularity of abortion as an election issue" in the United Kingdom.[3] In his view, its "failure" at the ballot box demonstrated "a failure to win the argument", with the majority of the British population believing that abortion should remain legal.[7] A 2005 poll found that over 70% of Britons believed that abortion should be always or mostly legal while less than a quarter thought that it should be always or mostly illegal.[7]
| Election year | # of total votes | % of overall vote | # of seats contested | # of seats won | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997[1] | 19,332 | 0.1% | 56 | 0 | 19 |
| 2001[13] | 9,453 | 0.0% | 37 | 0 | 22 |
