Our Lack of Ambition
We lack ambition for our children. They are less likely to achieve the academic or skilled excellence of their European counterparts. They are more likely to end up abused, addicted or in prison. They are less likely even to survive in infancy. Child mortality is higher than in eight other European Community countries.
Where it Begins
Back in 1967 many of those who argued for the provision of legal abortion maintained that it would end child abuse: 'Every Child Will Be A Wanted Child', said the slogans. The violent dismemberment of the child is of course the ultimate form of child abuse. Each working day in our British hospitals and clinics (euphemistically called nursing homes) 600 unborn children are aborted; 184,000 last year alone; 3½ million since 1967. We have one of the highest abortion rates in Europe, with one abortion for every four births. We also have one of the highest upper time limits beyond which social abortions may not occur (twenty-four weeks, compared with twelve weeks in Belgium, twelve weeks in West Germany and twelve weeks in France). The leading immunologist, Dr. Peter McCullogh, says the unborn child can feel pain from seven weeks' gestation. Far from enhancing the 'rights' of women, the brutal abortion ethic has led to diminished respect for the woman and her child. Nine out of ten women now say they are afraid to go out at night for fear of attack or rape. The abortion ethic, violent attacks and child abuse are all part of life in a society where violence has become part and parcel of everyday living. This diminished respect for life has led to savage attitudes towards the human being at every point of its development. In Britain the tiny embryo may now legally be used for experimental purposes. Chemical warfare against the unborn, in the form of the drug RU486,1 has been authorised by the Health Secretary. And the baby showing any sign of disability may legally be destroyed up until and even during the moment of birth: infanticide. In 1990 while the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was being enacted Parliament also saw the first attempt by British MPs to make euthanasia legal.