Government ignores the lives of the most vulnerable

The decision made by the government at the end of March to allow women to abort their own children at home was made on the ‘expert advice’ of abortion activists. Tuesday’s hearing at the High Court, seeking a judicial review into the government’s decision, revealed that the abortion industry has captured the Department of Health and Social Care.

Despite members of the government assuring Parliament that no changes would be made to abortion law, the government was quickly strong-armed into allowing home abortions by abortion providers and their allies in the civil service.

More deaths from abortion than Covid-19

The sad irony is that while the government was distracted by the current Covid-19 pandemic, trying to “protect lives” and “save the NHS”, it failed to protect the most vulnerable in our society and instead allowed tens of thousands of lives to be put at risk during the lockdown.

So far, since the first coronavirus death was reported 11 weeks ago at the beginning of March, the UK has tragically seen over 35,000 die from the virus. While every one of those lives lost is a tragedy, how is it that the government doesn’t bat an eyelid at the suggestion that a further 44,000 lives could also be lost in the first 13 weeks of lockdown thanks to home abortions?

Documents shown to the High Court reveal that abortion activists took advantage of the pandemic to push an agenda. After Health Secretary Matt Hancock had expressly told Parliament that he would not change the law on abortion, Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service) wrote to Andrea Duncan, a senior civil servant in the Department of Health, calling the statement a “bizarre decision to cause women travel to stand in a clinic foyer to swallow a pill that could have been sent to her at home.” But it isn’t simply the lives of women that might be at risk from travel – now thousands more unborn babies’ lives are at risk from dangerous ‘DIY’ abortion.

Not a simple medical procedure

The truth is, many don’t realise what the taking of the two abortion pills involves. Although the abortion industry treats abortion as a ‘simple medical procedure’, the reality for many women can be much more painful – not only emotionally, but physically as well.

Former GP Dr Trevor Stammers outlines his concerns with introducing at-home abortions:

“They make a nonsense of informed consent and they trivialise totally the taking of unborn life.”

To break it down simply, the taking of the first pill – Mifespristone – is usually taken at the clinic and is used to kill the baby. The second pill – Misoprostol – can usually either be taken at home or at the clinic up to 48 hours later and is used to ‘flush out’ the dead baby. During lockdown, that’s potentially 44,000 women having to live with the consequences of seeing their dead child flushed down the toilet with no more clinical support than a simple video consultation and a set of pills arriving in the post.

The government has disregarded the life of the child

The law recognises the life of the child. The 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which is still in force, recognises that abortion kills a child. The 1967 Abortion Act, which is what grants exceptions to the 1861 Act, also recognises that abortion terminates the life of a child. The Department of Health and Social Care, however, treats abortion as if it were a procedure like any other – much like removing a tooth. Only most people have to pay for that.

In her witness statement, Andrea Duncan (Department of Health and Social Care) concludes that the government made the decision to introduce DIY abortion having “taken account of clinical advice and women’s safety and wellbeing”. Nowhere is there a regard for the life of the child inside the woman.

Nowhere does the law simply treat abortion as a simple medical procedure. It recognises that there is not only the mother to take into consideration, but also the child living within her, with rights of his own. It appears the government – with the guidance of the abortion industry – has disregarded the life of the child altogether.

Abortion industry supports killing children

In fact, even some within the abortion industry recognise that abortion kills a life. In her book The Moral Case for Abortion, BPAS chief executive Ann Furedi states:  “The opponents of abortion claim that abortion is wrong because ‘it ends the life of the unborn child’ whereas for abortion’s supporters ending its life in the womb is precisely its point” (p.64). She continues: “Essentially, the point for us is not when life begins, but when life begins to matter … Abortion may be an act of killing – but it kills a being that has no sense of life or death, and no awareness of self as distinct from others.” (pp.99-100).

If these are the sorts of biased beliefs and ‘expert advice’ that the government has been listening to, it is very hard to accept that its decision to introduce home abortions was for the ‘good of women’ and not simply pandering to the desires of abortion activists pushing a dangerous agenda.

It is time the government admitted its mistake and reversed this disastrous policy – before more lives are needlessly sacrificed during this pandemic.