Media Statement
BBC Panorama attack on TPAC
The BBC has produced a hit piece attacking our work. We were not invited to be interviewed. Below is the statement we gave them on 21 February and their email to us of 14 February.
The BBC News Online article promoting the programme has edited down our already brief statement, reducing even further our opportunity to respond. We are submitting a complaint to the BBC.
For further context, readers may wish to visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/abortion/risks/.
Chris Richards, on behalf of the Trustees
Our statement of 21st February
Dear Ms Layhe,
On behalf of Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre the following is a response to your letter to me and communication to the Centre of 14th February 2023:
The misrepresentations in your email may be actionable. TPAC has a 14-year track record of compliance with all of its regulatory obligations. Over 1,200 women have benefitted from the work of our staff and volunteers.
Panorama could have sought journalistic balance by approaching us directly. Instead, your activist production team chose the prejudicial medium of a secret recording to seek to discredit a registered charity that provides free services to women who request them. Our staff member quickly realised the person she was dealing with was a bad faith actor.
Anyone who reads our website can see where we are coming from. We are not a campaigning organisation. TPAC has never received any funding from US anti-abortion groups, and the BBC ought to know better than to peddle conspiracy theories.
Since this is the only opportunity we have been offered to respond to the BBC’s partisan attack on our work, we request that the whole of this statement be broadcast, in full, in your documentary.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Chris Richards
Director, Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre
P.S. We would request that you kindly refrain from publishing the name of the advisor you spoke to.
The BBC’s email to us of 14th February
Dear Sir/Madam,
I work as a Producer for BBC Panorama.
We are currently making a programme which investigates the quality of advice given to women by pregnancy crisis services which are not part of the NHS.
The Panorama programme is scheduled for broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer on 27th February 2023. We anticipate there will also be coverage on other BBC outlets before and after transmission.
As part of the programme we intend to examine the quality of advice given at Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre.
You state on your website that you provide a ‘free, confidential and friendly advice service’ and use ‘trained advisors’.
We invite you to respond to the points and issues below which, as a result of our investigation and research, we are considering including in our output. As our programme nears broadcast there may be further matters.
We have gathered evidence that a counsellor who works for you, who is called [REDACTED], made the following points to a woman seeking advice about an unplanned pregnancy at your centre:
• She asked the woman if she thought she could cope with a third child as she presumably knew what she was doing, and told her that because she has two daughters, she has experience. (The woman seeking advice told her she already had 2 children.) This appeared to be an attempt to encourage the woman not to have an abortion.
• She asked the woman if she would be able to tell her daughters about having a termination, or if it was something she would have to keep quiet.
• She handed the woman a leaflet entitled ‘Understanding Abortion’. This contains a list of negative experiences as a result of having an abortion including depression, guilt, shame, anxiety and panic.
• When the woman asked about the risks on the leaflet that had been given to her, she was told that she could get an internal infection which could affect her if she had any scarring tissue on her fallopian tubes.
• She expanded on the mental health problems cited in the leaflet to explain the woman might not want to be around children in the future following a termination.
[REDACTED] then suggested to the woman potentially undergoing an ultrasound scan, explaining that it may help her make her decision. She explained that it could prove to her that she really is pregnant.
We consulted two experts about the evidence we gathered. One said:
• The use of an ultrasound scanning machine is manipulative and deceitful.
• The counsellor tried to make the woman feel guilty about having an abortion.
• The session was manipulative and unethical.
The other said:
• The use of the ultrasound scanning machine was to make the woman feel shame and guilt.
• The reference to her daughters was biased.
• There is no evidence that having an abortion would mean that you could not be around children.
We intend to report that Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre is run by the charity Foundation for Life, but the centre’s website does not mention this information.
Foundation For Life has a clear anti abortion position (also not mentioned on the centre’s website) and was founded by Dr Chris Richards who has campaigned against abortion for many years.
In line with the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and the Ofcom code, we invite you to respond to the issues raised above no later than 5pm on 21st February 2023.
In 2020, Dr Richards gave a speech at a Brephos conference about the centre. Please could you answer the following questions about the speech:
• What are the names of the ‘pro-life pregnancy centres’ in the US that gave training to the centre’s staff?
• Which ‘pro-life counselling centres’ in the US offered experience and/or support to advisors and staff at the centre?
• What other training, funding or other forms of support, if any, has the centre, or any staff within it, received from American anti-abortion groups?
I would appreciate it if you could acknowledge receipt of this email and provide a copy to [REDACTED] as we are unable to find contact details for her.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Layhe
Eleanor Layhe
Producer, BBC News
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Floor 2, New Broadcasting House
Portland Place
W1A 1AA