Communications Manager Paul Huxley pictures a future in which the UK embraces God’s pattern for life and family
Our minds may immediately jump to a change in the law. We are shocked and disheartened by the loss of life through abortion in the UK – over 10 million lives lost through the Abortion Act, now at a rate of more than 250,000 per year. We are used to fighting the abortion industry’s endless attempts to push the unborn child out of the picture.
This is all very important. But repentance means more than just changing the laws.
Repentance means addressing the sins of the past, not just avoiding sins of the future. For Zacchaeus, repentance meant giving half of his possessions to the poor and restoring fourfold any money he had stolen.
What’s the equivalent for our nation’s record of abortion?
True, heartfelt repentance would go much further, and have much wider consequences than it might seem at first.
National repentance and healing
National repentance of abortion would mean the public recognising the humanity and value of every human life, from conception. It would mean a great number of people realising the scale of the evil we have done and our complicity in it.
1 in 3 UK women are estimated to have an abortion in their lifetime. Approximately ten million women and their partners and family members would need to come to terms with what has happened.
We commemorate the lives of those lost in wars and atrocities with memorials and days of remembrance – special times and spaces where memories can be processed and future generations taught.
Surely we would need such times and spaces for abortions. A day of remembrance for the victims of abortion. Special sanctuary gardens where the forgiveness and rest of Jesus Christ can be offered to those with pain and regret.
Children are the primary victims of abortion but mothers, family members and the wider society suffers too.
We need to offer healing.
Unwinding the sexual revolution
The availability of abortion has always functioned as a form of contraception, even if as a ‘last resort’.
As abortion becomes unthinkable, sexuality will have to be exercised with far more care. One-night-stands would become particularly risky. Within relationships, sex before marriage would also be less common, with more women demanding commitment from their partner before the possibility of becoming pregnant.
The pornography industry, sex trafficking and abortion are tightly connected with one another. Sex trafficking and pornography require (and fund) abortion providers to ‘deal with’ unwanted pregnancies. Pornography incites lust and other behaviours that in turn, fuel the demand for sexual exploitation and more abortion.
You can start to see how just recovering the humanity of the unborn child would have much broader effects than most realise – it would start to unwind the sexual revolution.
Recover the value of children
As society grows to recognise the inherent value of all of us, children would be seen differently.
So often, children are joked about or treated as obstacles that stop adults living the life they want to.
Parenthood is challenging – it costs money, sleep and time. Maintaining friendships becomes harder, economic opportunities become more limited.
Unless our culture deeply values children, the temptation and pressure will always be to abort, even among those who recognise the child’s humanity. The UK abortion rate spikes when there are times of national crisis or inflation – like during the Covid lockdown. No abortion law will ever be totally effective in stopping all killing; the pressure to abort must also be addressed.
Economically, having children must not be penalised as they currently are by anti-family policies. Our economic policies should not seek to value children neutrally but should incentivise the raising of children.
Local communities and particularly churches must be ready to give tireless support to new parents, particularly mothers. We cannot leave parents alone to handle years of raising children by themselves. Social, financial, emotional support must be the norm, not the exception.
Churches are often the best examples of this kind of support. But we need to go further still by redoubling our efforts to ease the pressures on parents and support families.
A culture of adoption, not destruction
With that comes the need to promote the value of adoption.
Mothers who are genuinely unable to support a child after birth should be supported with compassion to put their child up for adoption.
Adoption is a glorious picture of the gospel, in which God adopts us as his sons and daughters. There should be absolutely no stigma attached to adopting or being adopted. Adoptive parents are acting like God himself, welcoming and valuing new members of their family. Children who are adopted really become true members of their families, just as we truly become God’s children.
Repentance from abortion would entail repentance from forms of IVF that destroy or freeze human embryos. As we value adoption more highly, we also ought to see demands for surrogacy and other fertility treatments wane.
Loneliness, anxiety and identity
Children raised in stronger families, with both parents present and good community support, would be better developed. Studies repeatedly show that children raised in stable families with their mum and dad both present have the best outcomes.
The long-term effects would also be wonderful – healthier children, healthier teenagers and eventually healthier adults. You would expect there to be less crime and more positive behaviours.
The mental health epidemics of anxiety, loneliness, gender distress and so much more would begin to dissipate. If people know that they are not valued on the basis of how useful they are to others (since even unborn babies are valued), they would be assured that they have dignity no matter how they feel. At the very end of life, people would know that no one needs a quick death through euthanasia to maintain their dignity.
Be more than a dreamer
What I’ve laid out here is, for the time being, just a dream.
None of these measures would rid us of sin, pain and death – only Jesus can do that. Nothing is ever quite as neat and simple as what I’ve laid out.
But it’s a direction – and, I think, a beautiful one. It shows that opposing abortion is not a narrow-minded concern or obsession but has widespread, positive ramifications for all of society.
God’s plan is best for us all – we needn’t be embarrassed.
How do we make this real?
Of course we need to continue to speak for the unborn, opposing pro-abortion policies and changes in law. If we fail to make it clear that children in wombs are worthy of protection, we will only perpetuate the problem.
But there’s more to do. If, one day, we’re going to need a memorial garden for the victims of abortion, why not start planting it today? If, one day, we’re going to need strong communities upholding the value of children by supporting parents for years, let’s start building those now.
These pro-life ministries go hand in hand with the legislative change we need to see.
There’s something here for everyone to do – old, young, single, married. We each have our part to play in this task of loving our neighbour – will you play yours?
