When, in October 1987, I introduced my Bill to stop late abortions I said that the objective was to do two things. First, to challenge the climate of the times by initiating a nationwide debate about the desirability of abortion. Second, to try and steer through a modest reform to the Abortion Act. That Bill, at its Second Reading on January 22nd 1988, received 296 votes from the 650 MPs who now comprise Parliament - the biggest pro-life vote ever. This book looks at the issues raised during that debate and at the approach pro-lifers must now pursue to obtain legislative change. We did not anticipate easy victories in either of our principal objectives. Two hundred years ago William Wilberforce and the Christians in Parliament who worked and prayed to end slavery committed themselves to a weary 40 years of harrying and campaigning. They were not popular in their day. They challenged vested interest; deeply ingrained prejudice; ethics that were based on the principle of 'the lesser of two evils' and the dubious idea that 'if we don't do it somebody else will'. It took them 40 years - the pro-life movement is just 20 years in to a fight of equal magnitude. Underpinning the practice of abortion are utilitarian values - the same values that justify unrestricted free market economics. Abortionism is sheer defeatism. It destroys the child and enslaves those who promote the abortion. In an abortion we kill both the child and the conscience of those who condone and encourage abortion. Abortion thrives in a society which sees human beings as expendable raw material - not as unique, worthwhile, special and irreplaceable. In another 20 years a Wilberforce may be raised up who will see abortionism wither on the vine. Until then we must bear in mind his encouraging words that 'the bravest of all are not those who win but those who take the first steps'.
A hard row to hoe
At the end of another noisy meeting - this time in Manchester - a young man became particularly abusive and angry. He was wearing all the right badges and was clearly an embracer of causes. 'If your Bill was law,' he told me angrily, 'I would have been a victim.' How was that? 'My girl friend was pregnant and kept it from me. I found out very late. Your Bill would have prevented her from getting an abortion.' This incident seemed to sum up how far society had come. Never mind the feelings of the woman involved - the possible physical and psychological consequences; and certainly never mind the child who had been destroyed. In his mind he, and he alone, would have been the victim of a law which sought to protect a developing child in the later stages of pregnancy.