Reform’s Robert Kenyon: ‘Women get abortions for vanity’

Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate, Robert Kenyon, has claimed women get abortions for “vanity purposes” and boasted of being sexist.

Kenyon’s social media already linked him to far-right figures and extremist political views. Now, he’s been outed as anti-women too.

On a rugby discussion forum, Robert Kenyon said he was anti-abortion and mocked the idea of women’s and reproductive rights.

Reproductive rights? Women’s rights? They can dress it up all they want, they are deciding to kill a baby inside the womb…What they mean is they want to shag anyone they want and if they get caught they get a second chance and treat it [sic] as a secondary last chance form of contraception. They ain’t kidding anyone.

He went on:

I’d hazard a guess that the majority [of abortions] are for vanity purposes like unwanted pregnancies.

National pro-choice campaign, Abortion Rights, condemned his comments.

Chairperson, Kerry Abel, said:

Robert Kenyon’s comments are appalling and reveal a deeply harmful attitude towards women and abortion care. Suggesting that women lie about rape in order to access abortions is both dangerous and insulting to survivors of sexual violence.

Abortion is essential healthcare and the overwhelming majority of people in Britain support the right to choose. Candidates seeking public office should be challenged when they promote rhetoric that seeks to shame, stigmatise and undermine reproductive rights.

These comments also raise wider concerns about the kinds of extremism and intolerance being normalised in our political discourse. Everyone deserves access to safe, legal abortion without judgement, harassment or political point-scoring.

Featured image via X/ reformparty