In this thread, I noted the lawyer acting against the Tavistock, Paul Conrathe, is using very similar arguments (those under 18 cannot consent at all; or cannot lawfully consent without x conditions) as he has run/is running in a number of cases challenging abortion rights. https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1274040811844505600

So who is Paul Conrathe, and what are those arguments? In this interview he says that his work with the ProLife Alliance challenging the homosexual age of consent caused them to instruct him on an abortion rights case ( https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/lawyer-in-the-news/33182.article).

Here is an anti-abortion rights case he is running at the moment. The woman in question, Ana-Maria Tudor, says her clinic was obliged to tell her foetus might feel pain or she could not give informed consent.

Conrathe has run a number of other cases challenging abortion rights on the basis consent was not given properly or consent cannot be given by someone under 18.

Stephen Hone argued via Conrathe his ex-girlfriend could not consent because her mental state was not examined.

Conrathe acted in the Axon case arguing that under 16s cannot consent to an abortion without their parents' knowledge.

Paul has also acted in a number of other cases challenging abortion rights including (amongst others) an attempt to bring a criminal prosecution against doctors and a challenge to the law permitting late abortions where the foetus has severe handicaps.

Here is the argument being made in the Tavistock judicial review - that those under the age of 18 are incapable of giving informed consent to puberty blockers.

This is the same argument Conrathe has made against abortion rights.

Success in the judicial review of the Tavistock would inevitably - I speak as a lawyer when I say this - give support to those seeking to close down abortion rights.

Paul has the same right to a value system and to fight for it as any of us do. But his value system, and the arguments he raises and will raise, in these cases and others to come, against feminism, homosexuality and trans rights, is not that of the feminists I was brought up by.