The conservative Christian legal group that helped dismantle abortion rights in the United States is now exporting its playbook overseas, starting with the United Kingdom.
If you follow the fight over abortion access in the U.S., you’ve likely heard of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The powerful nonprofit was instrumental in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. ADF drafted model legislation used to defend Mississippi’s 15-week ban and has long championed policies targeting LGBTQ+ rights, contraception access and same-sex marriage.
Now, ADF is setting its sights across the Atlantic. The organization—which boasts operations in 112 countries—has been quietly expanding its influence in Britain through its new alliance with the right-wing Reform Party, led by populist figure Nigel Farage.
ADF’s Growing Footprint in the U.K.
Through ADF’s global counterpart, ADF International, the group has offered legal aid to antiabortion protesters charged with violating buffer zone laws—laws that protect patients and providers from harassment outside reproductive health clinics.
The organization has also arranged meetings between Reform and the Trump administration to discuss abortion and online safety laws. (ADF denies that its representatives have met with Farage directly to discuss abortion.)
The Reform-ADF partnership is following a familiar playbook: reframing reproductive rights as a free-speech issue. ADF has backed efforts to challenge the Public Order Act of 2023, which established “safe access zones” around abortion clinics—150-meter perimeters designed to prevent harassment and obstruction. Despite broad public support for these zones (77 percent of Britons favor them), Farage and his allies have called the policy a “sinister crackdown on expression.”
On Sept. 3, Farage appeared before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan, to testify against the Online Safety Act, which protects children in the U.K. from viewing age-inappropriate content such as acts of violence or pornography. (The law took effect in the U.K. in October 2023, and has been implemented in phases.) Farage also argued the law harms free expression.
Abortion Law in the U.K. Versus the U.S.
Six years before Roe v. Wade enshrined a constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution, the 1967 Abortion Act medicalized abortion in the U.K. The law requires approval from two doctors, effectively medicalizing abortion rather than codifying it as a legal right.
“Doctors interpret this [act] generally to give women the right to have a termination, at least in the relatively early stages of pregnancy … but that’s not what the law says,” said London School of Economics and Political Science professor Emily Jackson at a University of Cambridge presentation.
By contrast, when Roe stood in the U.S., it enshrined abortion as a constitutional right, even if access varied by state. That right no longer exists—replaced by a patchwork of state bans and restrictions.
In Britain, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks gestation, but it’s governed as a healthcare procedure, not a protected right. That leaves room for erosion. As Jackson and others have noted, medicalization is not the same as legalization. To medicalize means to merely define something as a medical issue, as opposed to a political or social one. Actually legalizing abortion in the U.K. would require explicit legal protections for the procedure.
Still, there have been important advances in making abortion more accessible in the U.K. Just this June, Parliament ruled to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales—a major advance for reproductive autonomy.
But as the U.S. experience shows, progress is fragile when opponents are well-organized and well-funded.
Right-Wing Populism and the Antiabortion Playbook
The alliance between ADF and Reform isn’t just about British politics—it’s part of a global populist strategy that uses abortion to rally conservative voters and reshape public values.
Britain’s Reform Party is not the first populist movement to use reproductive rights as a political wedge. In Poland, the right-wing Law and Justice Party pushed the nation’s constitutional court to outlaw nearly all abortions in 2020, sparking mass protests. In the United States, a decades-long coalition of conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians—fueled by ADF’s legal and financial muscle—succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade and continues to target abortion pills, contraception and LGBTQ+ protections.
The same forces are now finding traction in Britain. While the U.K. is far less religious than the U.S., populist narratives can travel easily—especially when they tap into voter frustration or fear. Reform’s messaging on immigration and “family values” has already proven potent, and aligning with ADF gives that rhetoric an organized legal and moral framework.
As Karen Wright, public affairs manager for Humanists U.K., put it:
“There is a clear pattern here of U.S.-funded antiabortion activists testing the limits of the new U.K. law [the safe access zone law, the 2023 Public Order Act], seemingly trying to find the most acceptable-looking behavior to gain public sympathy, and then using that to try to tear down the law. It is deeply concerning to see efforts from outside groups attempting to influence domestic law, particularly when it comes to women’s reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.”
Why It Matters
The U.K. has long viewed abortion as a pragmatic healthcare issue, not a political flashpoint. But that relative calm makes it vulnerable: When reproductive rights aren’t explicitly protected in law, they’re easier to chip away through courts and culture.
The ADF’s expansion into Britain should serve as a warning. Its success in the United States shows how quickly a well-funded network can reshape laws and normalize extremism under the banner of “free speech” and “religious liberty.”
Abortion rights in Britain may appear secure, but history proves otherwise: Once rights are treated as privileges, they can vanish. To protect reproductive freedom, advocates must recognize this cross-Atlantic strategy for what it is: a deliberate, coordinated campaign to roll back progress wherever it exists.