The Labour party has said that the appointment of a campaigning anti-abortion group to a new government advisory panel on sexual health raises concerns about whether abortion will continue to have support from ministers in future.

The Life organisation, which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education, has been invited to join the sexual health forum, the Guardian revealed on Wednesday.

The forum has been set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, which was abolished last year by Anne Milton, the public health minister.

Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women and equalities, said on Wednesday: "Many women will be alarmed to hear that an organisation that campaigns against abortion in all circumstances is now advising the government.

"Abortion is legal in this country but the appointment of this group raises a concern about whether that will continue to be supported by ministers in future."

She added: "We know that women don't take decisions about pregnancy and abortion lightly. They will want reassurances from ministers that the appointment of this group does not signal a backwards step in independent advice, proper health support for women and safe access to abortion."

There has also been criticism of the government's decision to omit the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) from the new forum, despite its long-term membership of the previous advisory group.

The Department of Health has justified its decision on the basis that it was important that the forum represented "a wide range of interests".

However, news of the invitation to Life and omission of the BPAS has caused anger. Education for Choice, a pro-choice charity that provides education and training resources, used Twitter on Wednesday to "urge all those with interest in young people's health to write to public health minster Anne Milton to express disapproval".

Lisa Hallgarten, director of Education for Choice, said that sexual health professionals had played a key role advising the government in improving sexual health services in recent years.

Women have particularly benefited from developments including greater investment in contraception and improvements to abortion access, she said.

"It is hard to see how an organisation dedicated to opposing provision of abortion would support these kinds of advances and our main concern would be that Life might seek to obstruct further advances in contraceptive and abortion access or even turn the clock back on some of them," she added.

But the move was welcomed today by the Conservative MP and pro-life campaigner Nadine Dorries, who won backing from MPs this month for a motion proposing that teenage girls must be given lessons in how to say no to sex.

"The news that the government has ejected BPAS from the new sexual health forum and replaced them with the charity Life is pleasing, as it was the right thing to do," she wrote on her blog.

MPs voted 67 to 61, a majority of six, to let Dorries bring forward her bill, which would provide classes in abstinence for girls aged 13 to 16. It will receive its second reading in January, though it is unlikely to become law without government support.

She added: "Journalists who have contacted me have asked the question 'do you agree that this decision was taken quickly, as a result of the success of your 10-minute rule bill calling for abstinence to be included in sex education teaching' and 'do you think the government have been caught off guard by the amount of public support for your bill'? I have no idea, what I do know though is that it is a very good step in the right direction."

The MP has also tabled amendments to the to the health and social care bill to tighten the rules on terminations.

The new sexual health forum also includes representatives from the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, the Association of Directors of Public Health and the British HIV Association.

Also on the panel are the Terrence Higgins Trust, sexual health charity Brook, the Family Planning Association, the Sex Education Forum and National Children's Bureau.