Abortion has killed twice as many people as Covid

Andrea Williams comments on the latest abortion statistics on the 54th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act.

Each year, 27 October marks the anniversary of the Abortion Act 1967, which made abortion legal in England, Wales and Scotland.

It could hardly have been imagined that abortion medication would, by now, essentially be available for any reason, with no proper medical checks or oversight, with just a telephone appointment. Nor would the enormous and tragic numbers of abortions since then – fast approaching 10 million – have been remotely acceptable to the politicians who voted it through.

Humans are bad at understanding big numbers. Even if you know the statistics, mental arithmetic is tough, and instead we judge how important an issue is by how much we hear it talked about.

So it may surprise you, or even break your heart, to discover that since the pandemic arrived in the UK, abortion has killed twice as many people as Covid.

The latest figures show 163,515 deaths in the UK with Covid-19 on the death certificate. Fewer if you look at deaths within 28 days of a positive result. These are all tragedies. Society has rightly attempted, at considerable effort to stop this virus doing more damage than it has. We may yet see further attempts to lessen the impact in England through the Winter Plan B and mandatory vaccines for NHS workers.

But over the same time period, since 1 Mar 2020, around 340,000 unborn babies have been killed through abortion in England, Wales and Scotland[i]. When will we start tackling these avoidable deaths?

Where is plan B for abortion?

I’m not, of course, talking about the morning after pill, which is sometimes branded as Plan B. I’m talking about serious efforts to tackle these unnecessary deaths.

How many of us know someone who has died from Covid? Multiply that number by two and, on average, you’d have the number of abortions amongst people you know. Each one life-changing for the mother and life-ending for the child.

Where is the lockdown for abortion? Where is the social distancing, mask-wearing or public health initiative to slow down abortion?

There is none. The child is utterly absent from present day abortion policy. No one cares that a life is being ended. The days when abortion supporters called for safe, legal and rare are gone and the baby is now seen as a mere parasite.

This is overwhelmingly dark. But who would be surprised at such darkness when Christians shine such little light?

How many churches switched to livestreams or pre-recorded services when the virus hit? How often were masks worn, vaccines taken, singing stopped, sacraments suspended, weddings cancelled and funerals held with grievers forced to stand 2m apart?

Where is the equivalent effort for abortion?

If wearing a mask slowed down the abortion rate, how many people at your church would wear them? If stopping congregational singing saved a handful of babies’ lives, how many churches would fall silent?

This is a challenge even for those of us active in prayer, financial support and taking part in pro-life initiatives. The reality is that abortion is mostly unseen and the cost barely registers with us.

What if it did?

It would mean committing to keep working together until the law on abortion is changed. It would mean well-publicised and easily available support for any and every woman facing an unexpected pregnancy. It would mean heralding sex as only ever appropriate within marriage and seeing pregnancy as the natural and good consequence of married couples at a childbearing age.

Perhaps we don’t value unborn children enough because we don’t value born children enough. We see them as a burden that gets in the way of our careers and life dreams. If our culture realised how valuable children really are, could we ever see so many killed before their first breath?

The Bible is not silent on these issues and neither should Christians be.

Wherever you are, whatever you do to end abortion, could you join me in committing more than ever, to make abortion unimaginable?

[i] Taking Mar-Dec 2020 abortion statistics in England and Wales, and also 2020 abortion statistics for Scotland and assuming the same rate over the period from 1 Mar 2020 – 27 October 2021.