Amnesty International is urging greater government scrutiny of organizations involved in abortion, gender identity, counseling and Christian advocacy after identifying 117 groups it says are contributing to a decline in rights protections across the United Kingdom.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Amnesty International has classified a broad collection of pro-life organizations, pregnancy support centers, Christian advocacy groups, gender-critical feminists, therapists and publications as part of a growing “anti-rights movement” in the United Kingdom, while recommending that the government consider regulatory and legislative action affecting some of those organizations.
The organization presented its findings in a newly released report titled “A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK,” which identifies 117 groups operating in areas involving abortion, gender identity, religious advocacy and counseling.
Report – A Growing Threat the Anti-rights Movement in the UK July 2026 by yourNEWS Media
The report focuses on organizations Amnesty says are working against LGBT rights, abortion access and restrictions on what are described as conversion practices. Critics of the report contend that it groups together organizations with widely different missions and political affiliations, including pregnancy care centers, feminist organizations, Christian policy groups and people sharing personal experiences involving transgender family members.
The report arrives amid several other disputes involving sex, safety and social policy in Britain. Those include concerns about transgender activists seeking access to female-only spaces, allegations surrounding organized sexual abuse examined in Rupert Lowe’s report on Britain’s grooming gangs and parliamentary efforts to address a pornography culture considered sufficiently harmful that the United Kingdom has begun restricting certain pornographic material.
Amnesty’s report instead concentrates on organizations opposing abortion, gender self-identification policies and counseling rules requiring affirmation of a person’s declared gender identity.
“The UK has … experienced a significant decline in protections for LGBT+ rights, falling from 1st to 22nd place in ILGA-Europe’s annual Rainbow Map between 2015 and 2026,” Amnesty International stated in the report. “Key factors contributing to this decline include the failure to reform the legal gender recognition framework, the absence of a ban on conversion practices, the treatment of LGBT+ asylum seekers, and the implications of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Minister.”
Among the organizations identified are pregnancy care centers that assist women experiencing unplanned or difficult pregnancies. The report also names Labour Women’s Declaration, a left-wing feminist organization that opposes policies based on gender self-identification and advocates legal protections based on biological sex.
Other organizations on the list include pro-life advocacy groups, Gender Critical Greens and Children of Transitioners, which provides a platform for people whose parents identify as transgender to discuss how their families and personal lives have been affected.
According to a LifeSite News analysis of the report, Amnesty identified 49 organizations as gender-critical and 25 as pro-life. The pro-life category includes 13 crisis pregnancy centers.
Another 11 organizations were placed in a category involving what Amnesty describes as conversion practices. Those organizations include Genspect and Therapy First, groups that have questioned affirmation-only approaches to gender dysphoria and advocated broader access to exploratory therapy.
Amnesty also identified 12 organizations under the classification “Christian right policy/advocacy,” while placing several additional organizations and publications in an “Other” category.
That final category includes the Catholic Herald and Anglican Mainstream, along with the Natural Family Planning Teachers’ Association. Critics cited the inclusion of those organizations as evidence that Amnesty’s definition of an anti-rights group extends beyond organizations typically regarded as politically or ideologically extreme.
The report found that the gender-critical movement has expanded significantly in recent years, with 60% of the identified organizations emerging since 2017.
Amnesty also reported that the 117 organizations collectively spent £144 million from 2019 through 2024. That represented an increase of 47%, according to the report.
“The biggest spenders are ultra-conservative Christian policy and advocacy organizations,” the report stated, followed by “Uk branches of U.S. groups and anti-abortion organizations.”
Amnesty further noted that the organizations are geographically dispersed throughout the United Kingdom rather than being concentrated primarily in London. The findings indicate that opposition to gender self-identification, abortion and affirmation-based counseling policies has developed through a broad national network rather than a small collection of organizations operating near the center of government.
The report goes beyond identifying and categorizing the groups. Amnesty is also asking the Labour government to consider measures that could affect their operations, finances and legal standing.
Among its recommendations is an examination of the charitable status held by qualifying organizations, including consideration of whether that status should be revoked. Charitable status can provide financial and tax benefits while supporting an organization’s ability to raise money and conduct public campaigns.
Amnesty also recommends increased scrutiny and regulation of crisis pregnancy centers. Critics of the proposal argue that such regulations could be used to pressure centers into providing abortion referrals or information that conflicts with their pro-life missions.
Particular attention is directed toward the government’s proposed legislation addressing conversion practices. Amnesty’s report cited the publication of a draft bill and urged Parliament to adopt restrictions applying to counseling, therapeutic services, advertising and promotional activity.
“On 25 June 2026, the government published a draft Conversion Practices Bill, after years of commitments by successive governments,” the report stated.
“As the proposed ban moves through Parliament, particular attention should be paid to organisations and service providers that promote conversion practices, including those that provide training for therapists and counsellors, such as the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC),” it continued.
“The legislation should ensure that conversion practices cannot be legitimised through claims of consent or personal choice and should provide clear safeguards against potential loopholes. In addition, the bill should cover the advertising and promotion of these activities.”
The language indicates that Amnesty wants the proposed ban to apply even when an individual voluntarily seeks counseling and provides consent, provided the service falls within the government’s definition of a conversion practice.
The report also calls for restrictions on organizations that train therapists and counselors, specifically identifying the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice.
Critics contend that such a law could prohibit counseling that does not automatically affirm a patient’s asserted gender identity, including therapy intended to help children or young adults explore the causes of gender distress or become comfortable with their biological sex.
They argue that a prohibition covering consent, advertising, training and promotion could significantly restrict the choices available to patients and parents seeking alternatives to gender-transition interventions.
The dispute reflects a broader disagreement over how gender dysphoria should be treated and how the rights of patients, parents, therapists and advocacy organizations should be balanced. Supporters of affirmation-based policies describe nonaffirming approaches as harmful conversion efforts, while opponents argue that exploratory therapy is a legitimate form of care and should remain available when freely requested.
Amnesty frames its campaign as an effort to protect human rights and reverse what it describes as the United Kingdom’s declining LGBT protections. Organizations named in the report and their defenders, however, say the “anti-rights” designation treats disagreement with abortion and gender-identity policies as grounds for government intervention.
The organizations encompass people and institutions with materially different purposes. They include centers offering practical assistance to pregnant women, feminists seeking to preserve sex-based legal protections, Christian policy advocates, therapists, newspapers, natural family planning instructors and adults discussing the consequences of a parent’s gender transition.
The recommendations could therefore carry consequences extending beyond electoral advocacy. Reviews of charitable status could affect fundraising and organizational survival, while regulations governing pregnancy centers could determine what services and information they are permitted to provide.
The proposed conversion-practices legislation could also determine whether therapists may offer counseling that explores gender distress without affirming a patient’s transgender identity. By recommending that consent and personal choice not serve as exemptions, Amnesty is advocating a legal standard under which some voluntarily requested counseling could still be prohibited.
The report portrays the growth, spending and geographic reach of the listed groups as evidence of an expanding movement requiring a government response. Its critics view the same findings as evidence that public opposition to abortion and gender-identity policies is becoming more organized and widespread across the United Kingdom.
At the center of the controversy is whether organizations that challenge prevailing LGBT and abortion policies should be treated as participants in legitimate public debate or as a coordinated movement threatening recognized rights.
Amnesty’s proposed response — including charitable-status reviews, tighter regulation of pregnancy centers and a conversion-practices law without exceptions for consent or personal choice — places that question directly before the Labour government and Parliament.
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