Return to: Home | Politics | Law & Reform

Abortion an unworthy cause

Published 26 October 2007

We are commemorating a truly unworthy aspect of our past, writes Julia Millington, Political Director of the ProLife Alliance

Most national commemorations mark the triumphant end of some aggressive action by man against man, the day when peace was at last established, or a dictatorship overthrown, or apartheid repudiated, or slavery abolished.

This year we will be commemorating in the United Kingdom a truly unworthy aspect of our past but which, unlike the tragedies above, is still with us today. On October 27th, it will be four decades since the passing of the Abortion Act 1967, which formally legitimised the destruction of the most helpless of all human life, the child in the womb. Over 6.7 million unborn babies have been aborted since then, 6.7 million unknown, unnamed innocents.

Far from things changing for the better, the annual abortion figures in the UK are escalating. Multiple abortions are on the increase, younger and younger girls are ending up in the clinics, morning-after-pills are distributed by school nurses. Most pregnancies are terminated with minimum if any deference at all to the law. Eugenic abortion is available up to birth.

There can be no joy whatsoever in our hearts as we prepare for the 40th commemoration of the Abortion Act, only an overwhelming sense of sadness and immeasurable loss. The damaging impact of abortion on the medical and psychological health of the women and families involved, on the medical profession, and on the integrity of society itself is incalculable. And it would be impossible to quantify the value in human terms of the millions who have been denied the chance to live.

For some in this country there will never be such a thing as too many abortions. They continue to argue that there are not enough, either in this country or in the developing world. Like Marie Stopes International, who are holding a conference to ‘celebrate’ the Abortion Act, with the participation of Amnesty International, Catholics for a Free Choice, The Guttmacher Research Institute, International Planned Parenthood. On the platform will be the inevitable UK pro-abortion notables agitating for ever more liberal provision of abortion. David Steel, described grandly as the Architect of the Abortion Act, has a prime position on the day, and very disappointingly Journalist and Broadcaster, Sue MacGregor will chair one of the meetings.

Now is absolutely the right time to turn back the tide of abortion. In the heart of the nation, there is an understanding that abortion was never meant to be an unrestrained right and never should be. Even those who consider the practice a sad necessity are worried that the law is being abused in a way which should not be tolerated. And nobody but the absolute fanatic would ever suggest that the experience of abortion is something a woman easily forgets.

For the first time since 1990 there is a real possibility that abortion will be on the political agenda, possibly as part of the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill. The Commons’ Science & Technology Select Committee is completing an inquiry into abortion.

Many of us want to see abortion confined to history forever. Nobody but an absolute extremist can see abortion as a good thing and we must solve the problems that lead women to contemplate such a tragic end to a pregnancy, find real solutions long before they reach the abortion clinic. This way the abortion numbers will at last begin to fall. We believe that women, their unborn babies, their families, and society itself deserve much better than abortion.

Post this article to

3 comments from readers

Gem Tombs
28 October 2007 at 14:07

I agree - abortion is regrettable, and it should be avoided at all costs. But what about the exceptions? The rapes, teenage pregnancies of girls far too young to become mothers? Adoption is an option, but it is not always a realistic one. And what about when continuing with a pregnancy poses real health risks to the mother? It's unrealistic to attempt to 'confine abortion to history forever'. Reduce our dependence on it, perhaps. Provide free contraception and REAL sex education, not just one talk from a teacher at the age of 11. But removing a woman's right to chose is not progress. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

gnuneo
31 October 2007 at 01:55

i've got a really good idea, all you who oppose abortion (and usually contraception, morning after pills, and decent sex education), should sign up.

and then all those "unwanted children", (it would be around 6.7 million you say?) can be adopted by you and those like you, in your hatred of women's right to choose over their own bodies.

lets see you put your money and heart where your wide open hypocritical mouth is, instead of simply spouting your views and then going home with no comeback for your own lives, leaving those women who have been raped, those who had no access to contraception, those teenagers with little sexual education who make a mistake, those whom you apparently beleive you have the right to force your views upon, ignoring their rights as *actual* people, *actual* lives, not potential ones, to live out the consequences of your own thoughtless and uncompassionate opinions.

tell me, are you also campaigning against the ongoing assaults on iraq and afghanistan, against the genocides across the world, against the millions of children every year who die through starvation, drought, or easily preventable diseases in the 3rd world?

are you campaigning to prevent ethiopia's almost certain war against eritrea, that will cause the deaths of millions of people again, people who *already* exist and need your help?

no, far easier for you to attack women's rights with your rhetoric, to attempt to force abortions once again into the back streets, where thousands of women would slowly bleed to death from illegal abortions, as they still do in catholic countries and other backwards places, to force women to have unwanted children, unloved children, merely so you can pat yourself on the back and feel all gooey and 'christian' in your narrow-minded judgementalism.

i myself am pro-life as it happens, but i am not so arrogant as to beleive that my opinions are so right, so 'God-Given', that they can be forced upon everyone else, no matter their personal circumstances.

how goddamned arrogant of you, who the *hell* do you think you are to try to enforce such misery on millions of other people?

if you *really* want to cut the number of abortions, then move to make sexual education available earlier and in more depth, strive to improve young girls access to, and understanding of, contraception, work to end the deprivation of the inner cities, campaign to legalise cooperatively owned brothels so that potential rapists can easily and legally have sex, and can have their own hurts eased by the loving touch of a trained sexual councillor, all of which would reduce the incidence of abortions both necessary and choice-based.

but no doubt you won't, you would prefer to use the repressive power of the State to enforce your own prejudices, disempower women, and cause incredible pain and suffering to 10s of thousands every year.

your lack of compassion and empathy, your desire to use patriarchal legal enforcement, says more than anything else what kind of 'christian' you truly are.

i would suggest to you that on your death-bed, you should don a flame-proof suit, you just might need it soon afterwards.

PlanetStarbucks
31 October 2007 at 17:23

Abortion is viewed in this country as a last-ditch contraceptive by many of those most likely to become accidentally pregnant (teenage girls for example). While a blanket ban on abortion is never going to happen and shouldn't, a greater transparency in sexually related topics would allow people to turn down other paths before it ever came to that decision.

For me personally, when I read about women who have had an abortion due to accidental pregnancy it fills me with revulsion. How people can draw arbitrary lines in the sand as to when a foetus is a baby is beyond my comprehension. However, if a girl is raped or a baby will be handicapped in some way then abortion is not a lifestyle choice but a valid, if unfortunate, medical procedure. Although one can this is analogous to pre-natal eugenics or my own drawing of an arbitrary line, perhaps it is. At least my viewpoint rests on my own moral judgement of whether the child could physically cope in the world, not whether I couldn’t change my lifestyle.