How the US Christian Right and Anti-Abortion Lobbyists are Reshaping NHS Policy
Alice McCool reports on a new investigation exposing a global network of anti-abortion groups and US Christian nationalists using UK courts to target bodily autonomy
An investigation by Good Law Project has found that Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s decision to pause the NHS puberty blocker trial in February 2026 was based on a letter from a senior official subsequently removed from the trial over concerns about his impartiality – and that the legal team behind the wider challenge to the trial has direct ties to the US Christian right group pivotal in overturning Roe v. Wade.
On 11 February 2026, Professor Jacob George wrote to Streeting raising the argument that the trial might cause “long-term biological harms” and suggesting its lower age limit be raised to 14. A week later, Streeting paused the trial – citing George’s letter, in a redacted form, as the sole basis for his decision.
On 27 February, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) removed George from any involvement in the trial after journalist Cathy Newman uncovered now-deleted posts on X in which he had expressed anti-trans views. Good Law Project has since written to Streeting raising legal concerns about his decision, arguing that decision-makers are required by law to be without bias and to not appear to be biased.
Behind that immediate controversy lies a coordinated legal strategy backed by global, ultra-conservative forces linked to dark money, which is using trans healthcare as a wedge issue to target bodily autonomy more broadly in the UK.
Far-right, Russia-linked Anti-Abortion Network
Detransitioner Keira Bell’s legal challenge against the puberty blocker trial – filed shortly before Streeting paused it in February – is funded by CitizenGO, a global anti-abortion group backed by Russian oligarchs and linked to the Spanish far-right party Vox. Another claimant in that case is Bayswater Support Group, a trans parent group which was exposed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism as engaging in abusive practices against young trans people. (Bayswater disputes this reporting; its statement on the claims is published on its website.) A petition against the trial by the third claimant, James Esses, was debated in parliament on 23 March 2026.
CitizenGO campaigns against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights around the world, from helping Donald Trump pass legislation it claimed would permanently defund Planned Parenthood, to orchestrating an online campaign against moves by the Kenyan government in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
A Good Law Project undercover investigation found that a CitizenGO staffer told a reporter posing as a member of the public that the team in the UK is growing and that the group is moving beyond its usual online petition work to fund legal cases. CitizenGO disputes evidence from the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights that the group was founded with financial backing from pro-Putin oligarchs.
War on Bodily Autonomy
Keira Bell is represented by Paul Conrathe, a solicitor with a long history of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy. He represented Bell in an earlier case pushing for a ban on hormones for under-18s, which, despite not being given permission to proceed, influenced government policy – hormone treatment for under-18s has since been paused. Bell and Conrathe continue to push to extend the ban to private providers.
A Good Law Project investigation into another of Conrathe’s cases – against a GP practice in Brighton that operated a Trans Health Hub – found that the solicitor has ties to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an influential US-based Christian right group that was pivotal in the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
ADF has been ramping up its spending and activities in the UK in recent years – their financial accounts published this week show an income of nearly £1.5m, up from more than £1.3m last year.
In October 2025, the New York Times found that ADF’s British arm orchestrated Nigel Farage’s appearance before the US Congress in September 2025, and has supplied the Trump administration with lines that paint the British Government as hostile to free speech. In the UK, many of ADF’s cases focus on defending Christian anti-abortion activists who have been arrested for breaching buffer zones – areas near NHS clinics intended to protect women seeking abortion from harassment. JD Vance has spoken about these arrests directly, calling them a “backslide in conscience rights” in the UK.
ADF said in a statement: “ADF International is a Christian legal advocacy organisation that defends fundamental freedoms, including free speech, in the UK and around the world. We are committed to fighting against the free speech crisis in the UK and are proud to stand alongside our clients who are victims of ‘buffer zone’ censorship.”
The group describes itself as non-politically partisan.
The anti-abortion and anti-trans campaigns are interconnected in their attacks on bodily autonomy. Bell and Conrathe’s original case against the Tavistock gender identity clinic in 2020 took direct aim at “Gillick competence” – the legal principle that allows people under 16 to give consent to medical treatment, and which is crucial to ensuring reproductive rights for minors.
Expert on anti-gender networks, Sian Norris, told Good Law Project that the likes of CitizenGO and ADF tend to be “very canny at working out what issue will work out well for them” in different countries. In the UK, because abortion has wide public support, “anti-gender campaigners and their allies in the far right have focused much of their energy on campaigning against trans rights, and events such as drag queen story hours,” she said.
UK Institutional Complicity
Strategic litigation by these ultra-conservative actors targeting trans rights has been made easier by biases within government departments and the NHS. While the 2020 Bell v Tavistock ruling was later overturned following an intervention by Good Law Project, NHS restrictions on puberty blockers triggered by the case continued.
They were permanently banned in 2024 following the Cass Review into gender identity services for under-18s, despite criticism of the review by the British Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society. A peer-reviewed paper has since described the review as having methodological flaws and misrepresenting evidence.
In September 2024, Kemi Badenoch wrote on X that one of the reasons the UK had taken a global lead on restricting gender care was “having gender-critical men and women in the UK Government, holding the positions that mattered most in Equalities and Health.”
Streeting cited the allegations of bias by Jacob George when he paused the trial. The Good Law Project can also reveal that the trial’s lead investigator, Professor Emily Simonoff, spoke at an event organised by anti-trans lobby group Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM), which the Southern Poverty Law Center in the US has designated a hate group. Two other senior investigators in the trial – Dr Michael Absoud and Dr Julie Alderson – previously spoke at SEGM’s conference.
The issue extends beyond healthcare. Documents obtained under freedom of information requests uncovered the extent of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) relationship with anti-trans lobbyists including Sex Matters, including the offering of “fully private” policy meetings and the incorporation of their suggestions verbatim.
In 2024, Sex Matters’ director of advocacy, Helen Joyce, spoke at a conference hosted by Genspect – closely affiliated with SEGM and also designated as a hate group by the SPLC.
The EHRC said: “As Britain’s independent equality regulator, we always act in a fair, transparent and impartial way to uphold and enforce the Equality Act 2010. We frequently meet with stakeholders, and as part of the public consultation on our updated Code of Practice, we met with a wide range of organisations representing people with the protected characteristics of sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. This included meeting with trans rights and broader human rights organisations. Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act and trans people have legal protections from discrimination, harassment and other forms of unfair treatment.”
Human Cost
The human cost of shifting NHS policies on healthcare for trans people is cause for concern. QueerAF has reported that trans adults face gender clinic waiting lists with an average length of 25 years, and that 46 trans people under 18 died by suicide from April 2019 to March 2025. Good Law Project found that these deaths surged in 2021-2022, the time period which followed gender care restrictions brought by the Bell v Tavistock ruling.
All while this tiny, minoritised group listens to their existence being “debated” – while navigating the fallout of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman, from fears of being outed at work and school to exclusion from local community groups.
Suicide is not inevitable. Call the UK Samaritans on 116 123, or Switchboard LGBT+ 10am-10pm 0800 0119 100. TransActual’s mental health resources are available here.
Alice McCool is an investigative journalist. This piece is published in partnership with Good Law Project.
We really can't allow these people to get a grip on the UK.
Just look at the mess they've made in the US.