confirmed bachelor, the single man, even the potential priest. The Guardian even managed to publish correspondence on whether readers thought early ordination to the priesthood might be in everybody's interests! I was sorry to disappoint them, but I had no intention of taking Trappist vows! Why suddenly the 'Roman Catholic' label as though I had made a secret of it before? As I later asked one journalist, why not say Mrs Thatcher the Methodist Prime Minister or Nigel Lawson the Jewish Chancellor? They are forever in the news and yet their religion is never mentioned. Why suddenly the single man? Did that mean I could not have a view on late abortions? It was pretty obvious that we would have to bypass the national media if we were to raise up an army of supporters and helpers. This meant going to the regional and local papers. We wanted MPs put under pressure by their own constituents reading and hearing stories about the Bill, or better still seeing reports of pro-life rallies in their area. When the campaign started the local papers and radio stations were given the prolife arguments immediately - a prepared article was sent to the local and provincial press and a tape of LIFE's national official, Nuala Scarisbrick, talking about the Bill went out to radio stations. During my appearances at meetings all over the country I made a special effort to be available to journalists from the local and provincial media. Britain's provincial and local press are the last bastions of independent reporting and comment. The first morning paper to come out in our favour was the Huddersfield Examiner and the Liverpool Echo was the first evening daily. The quality of provincial press reporting, comment and leading articles on the Bill was very refreshing, after some of the coverage in national newspapers. As the debate blossomed in the country the national media began to take note. A Times leader said:
Abortion itself is a deliberate injury, temporary to the mother, fatal to the foetus. The philosophical question that arises is whether it is legitimate ever to weigh the wrong of an abortion against other wrongs, choosing the lesser, or whether it is of such a nature that it overrides all other considerations.
Throughout the whole of the campaign the Today newspaper pulled no punches. First it printed Lennart Nilsson's stunning photograph of a foetus at 18 weeks gestation in a colour full front page with a headline 'The Message'. One of its