we are the ones who stand before you and demand a life before death.
In the future the pressures on parents to have the tests and to then abort will grow. It is not a flight of fancy to suppose that there will come a time when the only people who will give birth to disabled children will be Christians. This will not be because disability had been cured but because disabled people in their earliest form will have been destroyed. Another challenge, as we confront the eugenic ethic, will be to turn the debate away from mere 'anti-abortionism' to a positive respect for life. Concern for the life of the unborn must be matched by our sensitivity and love for women with unexpected or problem pregnancies. I am a national patron of the excellent LIFE organisation. It now has a network of a hundred LIFE offices and sixty LIFE houses where vulnerable women - and their babies - may receive practical help and care. Education, resources and practical care will be essential ingredients in an approach which is based on a respect for life, and the movement for Christian Democracy will want to apply pressure on Government to move away from remedies which place such a low value on the premium of life. There are many positive achievements to the credit of the pro-life movement which will continue while the legislative fight goes on. Each year 80,000 women are helped by LIFE, who have a tremendous team of unpaid women busily saving life. In Britain, this manifestation of people power - people determined not to buckle under despite incredible pressure - is a beacon of hope and inspiration. It demonstrates a revolutionary spirit of dissent when it would be so much easier to go with the crowd. We must re-create the consensus which places a primacy on the right to life and which was broken in the 1960s. Many who should know better have been seduced by the egregious argument that 'Personally I am against abortion, or embryo experiments, but I believe women - or scientists - should have the right to choose'. While this argument has public relations appeal, closer analysis reveals it for what it is. Advocates of this position would never apply such logic to any other serious moral matter, such as racial harassment, child labour, sexual harassment, or racial or religious bigotry. It would sound pretty bizarre for someone to announce,