Time for Change
Last Saturday, October 27, marked 40 years since the passing of the Abortion Act. As it happens, the introduction of the Human Tissues and Embryo Bill to Parliament later this month will allow amendments to be made to that law.
Naturally, 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life' campaigners alike are seizing the opportunity to demand reform. The former want to liberalise the law even further, to permit abortions on demand in the first three months of pregnancy and allow nurses and local GP surgeries to carry them out. The 'pro-lifers' want to reduce the upper limit on legal 'termination' for a healthy infant from 24 weeks to 20. (For much of Europe, including France and Germany, the limit is 13 weeks.)
The debate revolves around many key issues. Anti-abortionists argue that the amount of information and the options given to women considering 'termination' are pitifully inadequate. Many parents are not made aware of how well-developed a foetus is at particular stages or told of the damage, physical and mental, an abortion can do to a woman, which includes putting her fertility at risk.
Then there is the question of the original rationale for the 1967 Act. As Joel Edwards said on Today last Friday: 'Would we have signed up had we realised that in 40 years we would have destroyed the equivalent of London's population and that in the vast majority of cases we had legislated to make abortion a choice of convenience rather than the safety of a woman's life?'
Hotly debated, too, is conflicting scientific evidence concerning at what age a baby in the womb can experience pain. Yet, as one response to an article by Polly Toynbee asked, is this really the issue?
'This ... argument about whether the baby can feel pain or not, or wouldn't survive if prematurely born, is a complete red herring. It's still destroying what is a remarkably developed life already by that stage, and therefore is obviously unacceptable to any decent atheist like myself that has a sense of compassion and can look at it rationally.'
Life is remarkable. Who are we to deny it to anyone? The biblical mandate - God's mandate - is to speak out on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the widow and the orphan, for all who cannot speak for themselves. How can we not cry out for the most voiceless of victims, those yet unborn?
Jason Gardner
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.
