Today also marks another important anniversary, albeit a most sad and shameful one. Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act being passed in Parliament. The Act didn't come into effect until 27th April 1968.
This shameful Abortion Act was first introduced by Member of Parliament Dr David Steel, now Lord Steel of Aikwood, as a Private Member's Bill. His private members' bill was, however, supported by the government of the day, who appointed the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Sir John Peel, to chair a medical advisory committee that reported in favour of passing the bill.
This Abortion Act made abortion legal in all of Great Britain, with the exception of Northern Ireland, up to 28 weeks' gestation.
In 1990, the law was amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act so that abortion was no longer legal after 24 weeks, except in cases where it was necessary to save the life of the woman, where there was evidence of extreme foetal abnormality, or where there was a grave risk of physical or mental injury to the woman.
In May 2008, there was a further parliamentary debate on the issue over whether the limit for legal abortions should be reduced from 24 to either 22 or 20 weeks. MPs failed to make any changes, so the law stands as amended in 1990.
Thankfully the Abortion Act was not extend to Northern Ireland. The situation is the same as it was in England before the introduction of the Abortion Act 1967. A recent publicity campaign reckoned this failure to extend the abortion laws to Northern Ireland has saved 100,000 lives.
Abortion is only permissible in Northern Ireland if a doctor acts to save the life of the mother or if continuing the pregnancy would result in physical or mental harm to the pregnant woman.
Someone practicing abortion outside of these legal perimeters would be charged under The Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 which remain in full force.
Abortions are now carried out on an industrial scale across England, Scotland and Wales. It is estimated that there has now been almost 9 million abortions in Great Britain since the 1967 Abortion Act was introduced. About 98 per cent of these abortions are purely for social reasons and not medical interventions.
This is a shameful statistic. The blood of the innocent surely cries from the ground unto God in heaven. It cannot go well with any nations who treats the unborn in this way. Those involved in bringing in this legislation and implementing it will have a lot to answer for on the Day of Judgment.
Repugnant also is the bleating that comes from activists about disability and human rights when at the same time they lobby for the right to abortion and the murder of the unborn and suggest that there should be a relaxation of existing laws and with some the abolition of any abortions controls.
See previous article on this Blog - Scriptural Observations on the issue of Abortion
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