Today, Thursday 27 April 2023, marks 55 years since the Abortion Act came into effect in the UK, six months after it received royal assent.
On this sombre anniversary let us, as a parish, remember the staggering 10,135,618 unborn babies have lost their lives to abortion across England, Wales, and Scotland. That’s approximately 26 lives lost every hour! Every one of these abortions represents a collective failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.
As well as praying for the unborn children who have lost their lives over that time, may we encourage you to take some time to pray, too, for the many women who have chosen to – or felt forced to – make such difficult decisions. Let us pray for their healing, which can take many years.
FIND OUT MORE AND TAKE ACTION
To mark this anniversary, let us join together, with people around the country, by talking to others about it or by posting an anniversary commemoration graphic to their social media profiles.There is a link to a special webpage that has more information about this tragic day and the negative impact abortion has had on the country. It also includes informative videos and highlights polling, which shows the general population wants increased protections for unborn babies and more support for mothers facing unplanned pregnancies, rather than the wholesale removal of legal safeguards around abortion.
Speaking at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act in 2017, Lord Alton lamented the lives that have been lost to abortion since the introduction of the Act.
He pointed out that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the UK is a signatory, guarantees the right to life. He asked “what use are all the other human rights contained in that declaration, if you are denied the right to life in the first place”.
“The fact that we neuter the protection of our laws for our tiniest countrymen and countrywomen is a horror and a disgrace on a massive scale.”
He then went on to talk about the millions of taxpayer pounds that funded abortion overseas in developing countries in the form of foreign aid, an act that activists in these countries consider a form of ‘neo-colonialism’.
He went on to warn about the push towards decriminalisation, led by the abortion lobby and activist politicians, which would result in “abortion-on-demand, for any reason, in all circumstances, up to birth”.
He urged people not to lose hope in the face of entrenched opposition. “As those who recognise and champion human dignity, it is our role and our duty to stand for every silenced voice”.
“[W]e are not going away we are not going to remain quiet whilst injustice occurs and we are not going to stop working and educating and campaigning and fighting till we live in a society where the humanity, the dignity and rights of every member of our nation are together recognised”.
