Anti-abortion groups have received funds from the UK government and National Lottery

Crisis pregnancy centres in the UK, some of which are known to have an anti-abortion agenda, have received funding from the government and National Lottery to continue their work.

Many crisis pregnancy centres are registered charities and some have received financial support from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as recently revealed by Amnesty International UK.

This comes on top of donations from anti-abortion organisations, including those based in the United States. This is expected to grow during Donald Trump’s second administration.

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Crisis pregnancy centres are often run by Christian groups and typically offer free counselling to women considering their options around pregnancy.

Some run ethical and impartial services, but others are believed to misinform women about abortion, a phenomenon which the Big Issue has been investigating.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport provided funding to crisis pregnancy centres during the pandemic, as part of the Conservative government’s Coronavirus Community Fund.

The department confirmed the fund totalled £200 million and was distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund to charities and voluntary and community sector organisations in England.

It was intended to ensure continued support for vulnerable people during lockdowns and to reduce closures of “essential organisations”.

Some of this funding went towards crisis pregnancy centres. This included £7,350 given to the Pregnancy Centres Network, a charity which supports crisis pregnancy centres in the UK.

It states on its website that it exists “to encourage pregnancy centres in their work of non-directive supportfor those facing unplanned pregnancy or struggling with pregnancy/child loss concerns, exercised with care and compassion based on Christian principles”.

Pregnancy Centres Network has previously partnered with anti-abortion lobby groups. In an advertisement about its partnership with Christian Action, Research and Education (CARE) in 2021, abortion was described as an act of “sin”.

Pregnancy Centres Network also claims it supports centres to engage in “preventative work” educating young people about unplanned pregnancy in schools and other settings.

A spokesperson for the network claimed it “recognises the vital importance of women and their partners receiving professional standards of compassionate, non-directive, and non-judgmental care”.

“We believe it is essential that reliable pregnancy centres and charities can be easily identified,” they added, although it does not list the pregnancy centres it is affiliated with on its website.

“We exist to resource and encourage independent pregnancy centres in their work of non-directive support for those facing a pregnancy crisis or struggling following a pregnancy loss, however that loss has occurred. This equips practitioners who have completed our externally accredited training to deliver support.”

They claimed that one client anonymously said: “I cannot be more thankful to have extra help in a difficult situation. I felt that I was able to say everything without worrying about being judged or anything being biased! Thank you so much.”

The growth in expenditure of crisis pregnancy centres has risen 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to Amnesty International UK. They sampled nine crisis pregnancy centres for which researchers were able to find financial data, and their spending had frown from £4.4m to £6.4m.

Pregnancy Centres Network saw its spending rise by more than 53% in this time.

The National Lottery Community Fund is also believed to have funded crisis pregnancy centres beyond these government grants.

It confirmed it currently has an active £355,103 grant with Life, an established anti-abortion charity which offers free counselling services to people facing unplanned pregnancy, pregnancy loss or “loss through abortion”.

The grant is used by outreach staff to support women in the criminal justice system, including advice around housing, employment, childcare, access to GP-Service, education and mental health support.

A spokesperson for the National Lottery Community Fund said: “We carry out a number of checks on the information supplied to us by groups applying for funding. This is to make sure that the information provided to us is correct, and there are no significant risks evident when awarding grants.

“We will always look into any concerns raised about a project and encourage people to come forward with any concerns they may have by following our ‘raising a concern’ process.”

Chiara Capraro, gender justice programme director at Amnesty International UK, said: “Crisis pregnancy centres pose as legitimate support for women, but they are unregulated and give misleading and harmful advice aimed at dissuading women and pregnant people from seeking abortion care.

“It’s incredibly concerning that these centres are increasing in number, resource and influence in the UK. Worryingly, it’s likely to get worse – we know that funding to crisis pregnancy centres worldwide increased during the first Trump administration, so we can expect further growth in the funds and reach of these organisations here in the UK during his second presidency.”

Life did not respond to the Big Issue’s requests for comment.

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