Claim:

At a meeting of City of Edinburgh Council’s South East Locality Committee on 24 September 2018 Cllr Claire Miller twice explained the role of the abortion provider, BPAS, stating:

BPAS is not a campaigning organization

https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/368173 at approx 01:33:45

BPAS is a medical services provider. It is not a campaigning organization

https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/368173 at approx 01:34:40

Cllr Miller’s statements were made during discussion of a report at Agenda Item 6.2 Motion – Buffer Zones. This related to the set up and membership of a Community Interest Partnership. Cllr Miller was the main speaker in favour of the report’s recommendations and had initiated production of the report at an earlier South East Locality Committee meeting.

Assessment:

The image below is a capture of a BPAS website: https://friendsofbpas.org/ on 2 September 2018, a few days before Cllr Miller’s statements. 6 campaigns are listed including “Back Off: the campaign to protect women from anti-abortion harassment” The BPAS site states:

“bpas provides abortion care in the UK, and campaigns and advocates for reproductive rights.”

A 10 September 2018 capture of the ‘Get Involved’ page of the BPAS website https://www.bpas.org provides links to 2 “current campaigns” – ‘We Trust Women – the campaign to decriminalise abortion across the UK’ and ‘Back Off – the campaign to protect women and staff from anti-abortion activists outside clinics’

Cllr Miller did not respond to a request to comment

Conclusion: INCORRECT

Two BPAS owned websites contradict Cllr Miller’s claims. BPAS states that it “campaigns and advocates” and lists multiple campaigns at the time of Cllr Miller’s statements. This claim is therefore rated INCORRECT