The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), a pro-life and anti-LGBT group, have issued a flyer urging people to write to their MP in protest at the government’s plans for marriage equality because they believe it could lead to an increase in abortions.

The flyer states that “we must protect real marriage because it protects children in the womb”.

The flyer also says that “statistics show that unborn babies are four or five times more likely to be aborted outside real marriage.”

SPUC define “real marriage” as that which “recognises the difference between men and women.”

However, SPUC’s claim that same-sex marriages – if legalised – were more likely to lead to the abortion of unborn babies within those very marriages, was not fully explained.

A married male couple cannot abort an unborn baby because neither party can carry one. A married female couple would only find themselves with child after a long and carefully considered process, making it highly unlikely they would ever seek an abortion; far less likely than a heterosexual woman in a traditional marriage who had gotten pregnant by accident.

Back in July when Prime Minister David Cameron pledged commitment to marriage equality, SPUC’s Chief Executive John Smeaton said: “Spuc and its colleagues in many pro-family, Christian and Muslim groups will ensure same-sex marriage becomes a big general election issue, especially in marginal constituencies.

“Mr Cameron’s speech reveals that his understanding of marriage and religion is woefully simplistic and ignorant.

“His mantra of ‘equality’ totally ignores the nature, history and role of marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman ordered towards the procreation of children.”