Hundreds of abortion-rights campaigners marched through central London on Saturday 5 September and confronted the annual March for Life UK demonstration, whose organisers estimated that more than 10,000 attended. One counter-protest was organised by Abortion Rights and another one by Feminist Strike Coalition, formed of feminist and direct action groups and campaigners.

Earlier that day, members of the coalition disrupted a Catholic Mass at Westminster Cathedral that formed part of the March for Life programme. Fifteen Catholic bishops reportedly attended the Mass and subsequently joined the march.

According to the coalition’s press release, US far-right money is flooding into the UK via groups like the US-based Christian far-right nationalist organisation Alliance Defending Freedom. Its UK branch (ADF UK) funds March for Life events–it spent £1.4m for anti-abortion lobbying in the UK in 2024; and its US branch, whose allies include JD Vance, has deep links to Reform and the Conservatives, have donated to Rishi Sunak and have met with Nigel Farage and Reform’s Head of Policy, James Orr.

ADF was involved in the US campaign that culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization judgement, which overturned the federal constitutional abortion protections established by Roe v Wade. Its subsequent activity in Britain and Europe forms part of a broader international effort to influence abortion, sexuality and gender policy.

Last year, in a historic win, abortion was finally decriminalised, meaning that people who terminate their own pregnancies are no longer at risk of being investigated by police. This does, however, not include healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses or midwives as they are still being penalised for assisting people in getting an abortion outside the current legal framework.

People seeking an abortion through clinics and NHS hospitals must still obtain approval from two doctors and the limit up to 24 weeks remains. Access to abortion is also disproportionately restricted for migrants who face NHS charging and fear of detention, as well as for trans and disabled people who encounter discrimination within healthcare.

A spokesperson for the coalition said: “feminists across the UK are increasingly concerned about the rise of the Far Right across our communities. We can’t take our rights to abortion for granted and let the far right turn back the clock on reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, which is why it’s more urgent than ever to oppose groups March For Life. Far-right ideas ideologies are intimately connected to the rise of fascism in the UK; they are part of a co-ordinated effort to assert control over our bodies and our freedom to move, weaponising the language of “safety” and “protection” for (white) women and children.”