Scottish Catholic Observer

‘Why did we start Project Truth?

The simple aim of our project is to show the humanity of the unborn child, because their humanity is hidden and denied by so many, including our government, in an attempt to condone abortion. Most abortions in the UK take place before 10 weeks gestation and often people believe the myth that before 10 weeks, the embryo is merely a blob of cells. We aim to dispel this myth by focusing on those first 10 weeks, looking at the ways in which a baby develops during that time.

Once people see that life truly is present from the moment of conception and that the pro-life position is a moral response to scientific fact, people do begin to think more seriously about the injustice of abortion. Once people see life, once they hear that a baby’s heart starts beating between 18 and 21 days after conception, it’s a simple reality check that instinctively moves a person to consider more seriously what abortion is and what it does.

During our Project Truth events many people we spoke to had simply accepted that abortion is legal, but had never stopped to think about the humanity of the child in the womb and the affect that abortion has on women, men and families who have made this choice. This just shows that it is crucial we are bringing the pro-life message to the public because as we know, they will not hear it elsewhere.

The 2014 Summer Roadshow

Last August we ran the first ever Project Truth Roadshow and we are delighted to say it was a great success, one which we hope to build on this year.

The team consisted of 11 young volunteers from across the UK who wanted to spread the pro-life message in Scotland. Over the course of the week we travelled to Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Stirling. During each event we set up a stall with pro-life literature, lollipops and balloons. We also piloted the Abortion Miscertification Petition and gathered 150 signatures over the course of the week and considering these were gathered from the general public, we thought it a great success. The roadshow team consisted not only of experienced pro-lifers, but also those who were sharing their pro-life beliefs for the first time.

Since the roadshow many of the participants have become more actively pro-life. One of our youngest participants, Catherine Farrelly, recently gave oral evidence at the Scottish Parliament against the Assisted Suicide Bill, which is a wonderful example of how she has grown in confidence with her pro-life conviction.

Plans for this year

We aim to launch our monthly events over the next few weeks, this involves us travelling to different Scottish towns and cities one Saturday per month and setting up Project Truth in the city centre of each place we visit. As well as these monthly events, we aim to run the second Project Truth Summer Roadshow, building on the success of last year’s event.

Last year we had 11 participants and reached five cities during the roadshow. Our hope this year is to double the number of participants and cities reached. Many of the participants from last year are keen to join the roadshow again, which is a good sign that they really did enjoy it and it will be great to have their experience for the newcomers. Leonora and I had the chance to speak about the roadshow at the SPUC Youth Conference recently and this generated quite a lot of interest from people who were hearing about it for the first time.

If you are aged between 18 and 35 and are interested in participating, please get in touch with us. The event will run from Sunday August 9 to Saturday August 15.

Fundraising

Last year we raised over £1500 through our fundraising efforts and people’s generosity. In order for us to build on what we did last year, we are aiming to raise £3000.

This year’s fundraiser will be carried out by one of our youngest supporters, Joseph Blackhall who is 10 years old. On Sunday May 30, Joseph will run the Edinburgh 2K Junior Marathon to help raise money for SPUC Scotland’s Project Truth campaign. Joseph, the son of SPUC Scotland’s Education Officer Leonora Blackhall, decided that he would like to raise money for charity and decided to enter the Edinburgh Junior Marathon. When asked which charity he would like to fundraise for, he chose Project Truth.

Joseph attended his first pro-life event last March, when he joined the Scottish bus going to the Birmingham March for Life. This was the first time he became aware of the issue of abortion and the need for people to do pro-life work and clearly this has had an impact on him. During the summer, he came to help at one of our Project Truth stalls on the roadshow and the picture shows him proudly wearing his Project Truth t-shirt. We will be purchasing one in the correct size for him to wear as he runs the marathon.

— To sponsor Joseph to run the marathon, you can either send in cash or a cheque to SPUC Scotland, 75 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 6TS or donate through our website www.spucscotland.org/support-us with ‘PROJECT TRUTH’ as the payment reference

— www.spucscotland.org