UK party's hard line on abortion heady

In Britain the Prolife Alliance was set up in November to campaign on a range of moral issues, most notably abolition of abortion. It has found 56 candidates to stand in constituencies where the sitting MP was not a committed anti-abortionist.

The party was founded by Bruno Quintavalle and his mother, Countess Josephine Quintavalle. Despite being known for their anti-abortion stance, except where it would harm the mother's body, they deny the Prolife Alliance is single-issue. They are committed to repeal of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which permitted development of test-tube-baby research, and the outlawing of assisted-conception techniques where more embryos were created than were immediately returned to the mother's body.

They say "the pro-life cause is the supreme cause", which is why they do not tackle issues favoured by traditional parties such as transport and the economy. They recently suffered a blow when Mohamed Al Fayed withdrew promised funding.