The curse of the Abortion Act
ES Williams
The Abortion Act received Royal ascent in October 1967.
During the succeeding 37 years around six million legal abortions have been
performed in Great Britain. In the latest year for which statistics are
available, there have been 181,600 legal abortions. The purpose of this article
is to assess the abortion era from a Christian perspective.
In Victorian times there was a Christian consensus that
abortion was wrong. It was widely believed that biblical truth taught that
human life is unique, for each person is created in the image of God. All human
life, therefore, should be protected and loved. The Christian view sought to
incorporate its belief in the sanctity of human life into the British legal
framework. Accordingly the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 made it a
criminal offence to procure an abortion in any circumstances. The unborn child
had the full protection of the law.
By the 1960s the heart of the Christian Church had grown
cold and compromise was the order of the day. Abortion was no longer regarded as
a sin against Heaven and against the unborn child, but a pragmatic solution to a
social problem. The relative morality of situation ethics claimed that abortion,
under certain circumstances, was the only ‘loving’ pragmatic solution to an
unwanted pregnancy. The abortion lobby was skilled in manipulating language to
hide the reality of their campaign—the unborn child became a ‘foetus’ and
abortion was referred to as a ‘termination’. The changing sexual mores of the
permissive society demanded the right for women to choose whether they wanted a
pregnancy to continue or not. At last the ideas of the radicals, liberals,
humanists, feminists and socialists, for so long contained by the restraints of
biblical truth, had become the new consensus with a new relative morality. ‘Free
love’ and ‘pro-choice’ were the slogans of the sexual revolutionaries.
During the permissive 1960s there were four unsuccessful
attempts to legalise abortion when in 1966 David Steel, a young Liberal MP, came
third in the ballot for a Private Member’s Bill and agreed to sponsor the
Abortion Reform Bill. Behind David Steel was the Abortion Law Reform
Association which had been set up in the 1930s by a group of socialist
feminists. A number of prominent figures in the Labour Party were supporters of
abortion reform, including the Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, who had put
his own Private Member’s Bill to Parliament in the early 1960s. Roy Jenkins,
the Home Secretary, expressed his support for reforming what he called the
existing harsh and archaic law on abortion. Labour’s tacit support in allowing
extra parliamentary time was essential to the success of the Bill.
The Abortion Act of 1967 was a watershed in the revolt
against traditional morality. It represented a massive victory for the dark
forces of the sexual revolution. It was the ultimate rejection of all that was
good and decent, a rejection of compassion and honesty. The dagger of
pro-choice, which allowed women to choose to abort their unborn child, was
plunged into the heart of civilised Britain. The most vulnerable in society
were now subject to assault by the abortionist curette. A once great Christian
nation had chosen to sacrifice its unborn children on the altar of
pro-choice.
One of the most devastating consequences of the abortion
holocaust is its effect on the national birth rate. Few people understand that
since 1972, just a few years after the Abortion Act came into force, the
fertility rate in Britain fell, and remained, 25 per cent below that required to
replace the population by natural means. The result is fewer children and young
people in society – 180,000 fewer each year. The consequences for schools,
universities and the NHS are obvious. This is why so many nurses are being
imported to run the NHS.
The national decline in fertility, which is perhaps the
most important social trend of our lifetime, must be interpreted in the light of
God’s word. The Bible is clear that obedience to God’s law leads to national
blessing. ‘If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his
commandments… the fruit of your womb will be blessed’(Deuteronomy 28:1,4). For
many centuries Christian Britain experienced this blessing. But the biblical
warning for the nation that disobeys God’s law is clear: ‘If you do not obey the
Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commandments… the fruit of
your womb will be cursed’ (Deuteronomy 28:15,18). The Abortion Act, which is
blatant disobedience to the sixth commandment – ‘you shall not murder’
(Deuteronomy 5:17), is the roadway to national destruction. God is not mocked;
a nation reaps what it sows. The national decline in fertility is a sure sign
of God’s curse upon this nation. Unless there is national repentance, worse is
to follow.
Those who oppose abortion must understand that they are
involved in a spiritual battle against the powers of evil in high places
(Ephesians 6:12). The battle is the Lord’s. King David understood this truth
when he defeated the mighty Goliath, a giant who defied the armies of the living
God, with a sling and faith in God (1 Samuel 17). The weapon with which to slay
the abortion giant is the Sword on the Spirit, which is the Word of God
(Ephesians 6:17). |