A group of medical and law “experts” (their expertise is seriously questionable) have written a letter to The Times calling for abortion to be made easier, to allow abortion on request up to 24 weeks, and for the requirement that two doctors have to sign the abortion form to be scrapped.
This is incredible because it is completely out of step with public opinion and the facts. Over the last four years, thanks to the work of imaging pioneer Professor Campbell, we have seen images of babies in the womb moving and yawning and there have been calls to change the law. Why have our lawmakers been so slow to catch up with public opinion?
How can we have a “Surestart for every child” policy but abort 600 babies a day on the NHS, in the same hospital as other doctors are treating premature babies?
There is so much evidence that abortion should be restricted: Babies are increasingly surviving at younger gestations, there have been opinion polls which show that the public support a massive restriction of abortion, there have been polls of doctors showing that doctors are refusing to carry out abortions, and there have been horrific stories such as the Sunday Telegraph undercover investigation which uncovered that the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (a charity, in receipt of public funding) was referring women to an abortion clinic in Spain for abortions on babies up to 30 weeks gestation, past the legal limit in the UK and Spain.
Even former abortionists have spoken out and said that the abortion limit is too late in the UK. In May, when abortion was debated in Parliament, Dr Vincent Argent, a former medical director of BPAS, revealed in The Telegraph that he felt abortion should be restricted to 16 weeks. He said:
“Most people do not realise just how distressing late abortions can be. The procedure remains the last taboo. While heart and brain surgery are regularly shown on TV, the reality of a late abortion has never been seen on British screens.
As an aside, the ProLife Alliance were banned from showing images of aborted babies by all the TV channels. If something is so horrific that we aren’t allowed to see it, why are we tolerating it?
Dr Argent continues: There are two main types of procedure; the medical type, which kills the baby via medication, meaning that the woman miscarries a stillborn. If the baby is 22 weeks or older, it will be given a lethal injection in the womb, to ensure it is not born alive. Alternatively the surgical procedure uses instruments to remove parts of the dismembered body from the uterus, limb by limb. It is hard to describe how it feels to pull out parts of a baby, to see arms, and bits of leg, and finally the head.”
However, euphemistic the language of medical ethics and legal experts who are calling for abortion to be made easier, the reality of abortion is indefensible.
Last May, Dr Vincent Argent also revealed in an article in The Mail on Sunday that GPs are routinely breaking the law by signing abortion consent forms without seeing or examining patients - or even after the procedure had been performed. Why are their no penalties for breaking the law?
It’s time that abortion law is restricted - it’s long, long, long overdue.
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October 25th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Well done to the four Northern Irish parties who united to say no to abortion - this surely stopped Westminster from inflicting abortion against the wishes of the Northern Irish people.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I personally have had many abortions and I think the procedure works just fine. I didn’t have to fill out mucho paperwork or anything. It was totally easy. It’s already easy enough, these “expert” don’t have the “d.l.” on anything. I don’t thikn they have any right to tell ME what to do with my robust woman’s body.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Aimee, it’s interesting to hear you say that abortion is totally easy to get - this is exactly the Prolife Alliance’s point - it was never the intention of the 1967 Abortion Act to allow 200,000 abortions a year, the vast majority for social reasons.
You say that other people don’t have the right to tell you what to do with your body, but the point about abortion is that it isn’t your body, it’s the body of a baby that is destroyed. Just because the baby is vulnerable and dependent, it has no less rights to protection than any other vulnerable and dependent child.
If we believe as a society that children require protection, then why is this not extended to babies before birth?
November 29th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I am pro choice and firmly believe that the ‘choice’ element comes before conception in the vast majority of cases.
Contraception is easier to get than an abortion and less traumatic, surely?
And how many women seeking an abortion for social reasons (to avoid the consequences of their actions) can honestly say they didn’t know how babies are made?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
If women understood the ‘true horror’ of a late term abortion then perhaps they wouldnt go through with it?
Secular education would be appropriate, if the reality of abortion is so grotesque and amoral then women could make an informed choice to continue with their pregnancy.
We cannot apply religious beleifs to UK law, so the provision of unbiased information is the key here.
We have already seen that outlawing abortion does not protect women or babies, so we need to find another route.