Farage finds new grifting opportunity

Continuing his bid to become Britain’s sad intimidation of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage has been forging ties with an American fundamentalist Christian group that’s seeking to ban abortion in the UK.

The Reform leader spent 3 hours this week before Congress in the US, testifying against the UK’s free speech laws. His presence there was the work of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a major conservative Christian organisation. The far-right group helped overturn Roe V Wade, resulting in millions of Americans losing their right to an abortion.

The ADF’s UK branch reached out to invite Farage to give evidence in the US. It then contacted the House Judiciary Committee, passing on his interest. Farage testified alongside an ADF lawyer, helping to build a case against what they characterised as increasing government censorship in Europe.

Free speech for me

The Alliance is reportedly seeking to strengthen conservative Christianity in the UK and on the continent. However, it recognises that anti-abortion messaging doesn’t go down as easily in Britain as it does in America. Instead, it’s seeking to worm its way into British discourse with ‘free-speech’ rhetoric.

ADF lawyer Lorcan Price said:

What’s emerging in the U.K. is a free-speech alliance of disparate groups who are all, for various reasons, shocked that we’ve ended up in the position we are here now.

Both the left and right in Britain have complained about limits on free speech in recent years. On the left, we’ve seen government crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests, and the right have whined that they’re not allowed to tell migrants to die in the sea. For the ADF, free speech is a gateway issue that could be used to eliminate buffer zones protecting UK abortion clinics from anti-abortion zealots.

So, apart from a shared interest in outspoken bigotry, what exactly has the Reform leader got in common with the ADF? Short answer: the fundamentalist lobby group has influence and deep pockets, and Farage would sell out his own grandmother for a pack of cigarettes, never mind a shot at being PM. As Zoe Williams put it in the Guardian:

When Farage was head of the Brexit party, it had no stance on abortion. The New York Times could find no record of his having done so, anyway, and knowing him as we all do, you can’t imagine it: it doesn’t chime at all with the smoking, pint-loving, British pound sterling and sovereignty guy, to be digging around in women’s business.

Yet as if by magic, suddenly last November, he wanted to talk about rolling back the abortion time limit “given that we can now save babies at 22 weeks” (the time limit is 24). By May this year, the current limit was “absolutely ludicrous” , according to Nigel. Although he did say to New York Times reporters that it was “bollocks” to say he had found a new interest in the topic of reproductive rights.

Call it what it is

The Liberal Democrats are already calling on Farage to explain his ties to the US fundamentalists. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper urged that:

Nigel Farage needs to come clean … and explain if his party would weaken women’s rights if he came to power.

The Liberal Democrats will stand up against these attempts to turn Trump’s America into Farage’s Britain and roll back the clock on decades of progress.

She also requested that parliament have the US ambassador explain this “blatant attempt to interfere in the UK’s domestic laws”.

Pro-choice activists in the UK have already been speaking out against Farage’s mounting anti-choice rhetoric for months. After he gave a speech calling the 24-week abortion deadline “ludicrous” back in May, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service warned that there was “no clinical justification for reducing the time limit”.

Likewise, Labour MP Stella Creasy said:

There is a shed load of cash coming into anti-abortion activism, so everyone who thinks this could never happen in the UK needs to understand they are not coming in saying they are going to stop all abortions, they are saying ‘babies could live at…’ or ‘shouldn’t women see a doctor before they have one’, and it all sounds very reasonable.

But in reality, it is a way of restricting access.

The national pro-choice campaign Abortion Rights also called out his slimy ‘pro-family’ framing:

Let’s be absolutely clear:

“Less abortion” means more state control over pregnancy.

“Less divorce” means trapping people in relationships.

“Pro-family” means defining who counts — and who doesn’t.

And when Farage says these things out loud – and still gains popularity – we can’t afford to look away.

He’s not just talking. He’s building a movement. And if he gets power, the consequences will be real.

As if it wasn’t obvious already, there isn’t a level of betrayal that Nigel Farage won’t stoop to if he thinks it will get him one more point in the polls. Every single one of his values is for sale, and his party’s policies along with them.

The man is a real and present threat to civil liberties and human rights in the UK. The fact that he’s in bed with the ADF if just further proof that his bigotry has no limits.

Featured image via the Canary