(LifeSiteNews) — In response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortion extremists in Europe have been pushing hard to enshrine feticide throughout all nine months of pregnancy in law.
In 2022, the French National Assembly voted 337-32 to begin the process of placing a “right” to abortion in the French Constitution. In January, the National Assembly voted to approve the constitutional abortion amendment by a staggering 433-30.
The French pro-life movement has fought back valiantly; thousands marched in Paris earlier this year, and last year the government condemned a campaign by a youth group, Survivors. Stickers portraying a baby in the womb, a crawling baby, and then a child on a bike were placed on rent-a-bikes across the capital. The slogan read: “What if you had let it live?”
READ: 89,000 babies have been saved from abortion since end of Roe: report
The transport minister, Clement Beaune, called the campaign “disgusting and unacceptable.” The Survivors stated that they are “youth revolted by the suffering…provoked by abortions.” French President Emmanuel Macron, ironically, has both spearheaded the push to embed abortion in the constitution while publicly stating his concerns over the cratering French birthrate. Macron appears not to see the connection, nor the contradiction – he has previously mocked large families.
A similar schizophrenia is unfolding in the United Kingdom. According to the Guardian earlier this month, parents who have lost a baby through miscarriage prior to 24 weeks – the current cutoff for abortion in the U.K. – can apply for a “baby loss certificate,” which validates the grief of parents who have lost children in utero and grants formal recognition of the baby’s life and death. (A similar scheme in the Netherlands resulted in a woman who regretted her abortion applying for formal legal status for her aborted child.)
The same week, the Telegraph reported that the Parliament of the United Kingdom is planning to hold a free vote on whether to decriminalize abortion up until birth – and, despite the fact that the Tories hold power, press reports indicate that a majority of MPs likely support full decriminalization. Children can survive outside the womb 22 weeks or earlier, and U.K. hospitals fight to keep preemies alive; on the other hand, politicians will soon vote on whether to permit the barbaric dismembering of children in the womb throughout all nine months.
READ: Think unborn babies are just ‘clumps of cells’? These videos will make you think again
They know better – those who vote in favor of this measure will do so in full awareness of what this will mean for thousands of babies who are aware and can feel pain. Fortunately, several Conservative MPs have threatened to derail the government’s entire flagship Criminal Justice Bill unless abortion is excluded. Conservative MP Miriam Cates said “To make it lawful to end the life of a viable baby right up to the moment of birth for no other reason than it is not wanted is morally wrong.” MP Nick Fletcher concurred: “Decriminalisation of abortion will no doubt end with abortions happening much later, even up until full term. This cannot be right in a civilised society.”
Conservative MP Caroline Ansell has tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would lower the abortion limit from 24 to 22 weeks, citing shifts in medical technology that keeps preemies alive earlier and earlier. Ansell, who has the support of 24 MPs in her bid to extend protections to more children, stated:
The increase in survival rates for babies born at 22 and 23 weeks gestation is one of medical science’s great success stories in recent years. More and more babies born at these ages are able to survive thanks to the hard work of neonatal teams. As in 1990, when our laws were last changed to reflect similar increases in survival rates, it is time our abortion time limit was updated. Our current time limit is an outlier compared with our European neighbours and my hope is this amendment will command widespread support across the House.
In Poland, the increasingly totalitarian coalition government of Donald Tusk has called for the legalization of abortion on demand until 12 weeks, a radical pivot away from Poland’s current pro-life regime. A “center-right” group in the ruling coalition has responded by offering a “compromise bill,” which would instead restore the 2021 status quo, in which babies with disabilities or birth defects can be legally killed in the womb. It is unclear how the Polish abortion wars will conclude; feminist activists are pushing Tusk hard, sensing that his shaky coalition is a rare opportunity – but Poland’s pro-life president, Andrzej Duda, is considered likely to veto any law that permits abortion on demand.
The French pro-life movement is up against long odds; in the U.K. and Poland, there are still opportunities to stop the abortion agenda. Everyone is betting against them, but just last year in Malta, the pro-life movement defeated abortion legalization once again – reminding us that victory is possible.
