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Life joins advisory panel.

The predominantly Catholic "Life" organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV. Stuart Cowie, Life's head of education, said: "We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past." In contrast, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has been omitted from the forum despite its long-term position on the previous advisory group and 40-year track record in providing pregnancy counselling nationwide.

Predictably, the report on this in the Guardian has brought forth a tirade of objections in its Comment is Free columns.

Occasionally surprising people do something right, in this case the UK coalition government. Why abortion is seen by "progressive" people as a good thing rather than serious violence against women and their bodies is a question that still calling for an answer. It is also surprising how so many who regard themselves as broad minded and tolerant can react vituperatively when their own views are challenged. And the BPAS appears not to be quite what its name would suggest, since, reputedly, its default position is to encourage the termination of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, which is a strange kind of pregnancy advice.

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