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Email: "UK: Rising Number of Abortions Confirm Need to Change 1967 Law"

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"This is not primarily a religious issue, it is a human issue": Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor BY LifeSiteNews.com By Peter J. SmithLONDON, August 1, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Department of Health report for 2005 on abortion in England and Wales indicates the abortion rate is rising, and confirms a growing awareness in Parliament that it needs to revisit the 1967 Abortion Act in order to address the rise of abortions throughout the United Kingdom, reports Zenit.org.According to the data published July 4 by Britain’s Department of Health (DOH), abortion rates increased for resident women in England and Wales by .4%, up from 186,416, compared with 185,700 a year earlier. The data indicated also that Britain has acted as a haven for foreigners wishing to have abortions. Last year 7,937 abortions were carried out for non-residents of England and Wales, comprised mostly of women from Ireland, bringing the final tally of abortions in Great Britain to 194,353 for 2005. Scotland also experienced 12,603 abortions in 2005 according to a separate BBC report, a record number of abortions since the practice was legalized throughout the UK in 1967. However the 2005 data also that 1,083 abortions were performed on girls 14 and younger, a figure that has outraged John Smeaton, the national director of the Society for the Protection for Unborn Children (SPUC).“It is shameful that the government should promote secret abortions for girls under the age of consent and insist that their parents aren’t told,” said Smeaton according to Zenit. Smeaton pointed out that the DOH wrongly tells UK doctors that the law of confidentiality is the same for all regardless whether the minor’s age is under 16.Official figures also reveal that 1,900 abortions were performed under the eugenic “ground E”, which permits abortion if doctors detect that the child would be born handicapped or disfigured. 22% of these “ground-E” cases were babies aborted with Down syndrome. As well, during the 2003-2005 period, 32% of women undergoing abortions had one or more previous abortions, a statistic that has risen from about 28% since 1995.“The high percentage of abortions—66%—within the first nine weeks of pregnancy is clear evidence, if any were needed, that abortion is provided on demand in the UK,” said Julia Millington of the UK’s ProLife Alliance in a press release July 4, who noted that abortion has become little more than a methodÂof contraception in the UK.The latest data on abortion has encouraged British politicians to re-open the debate on the 1967 Abortion Act, which was last amended in 1990, placing the restriction on abortion at 24 weeks, the estimated point at which an infant is able to live outside the womb. The increasing rates of abortion in the UK have revealed that the government’s millions of pounds spent on sex education programs and massive availability of contraceptives have contributed to the rise of abortion, instead of accomplishing their purported aim to reduce it. According to a July 3 BBC report, more than 60 British members of Parliament’s House of Commons have signed onto a motion requesting a review of the abortion law, and this review has also garnered the support of Lord David Steel, the original architect of the 1967 law. However, current proposals to limit abortion to 20-22 weeks may affect only 1% of British abortions, since the vast majority of abortions occur before the baby reaches 13 weeks gestation. Only 124 abortions were performed at 24 weeks gestation in 2004.Nevertheless, pro-life organizations and leaders are hailing any advance towards re-igniting the abortion debate in the kingdom. Two of the most prominent Catholic Leaders of England and Scotland, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, and Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, respectively, have both strongly urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to re-open the debate on abortion in the United Kingdom, and have welcomed any increased limit as a small step toward the goal of eliminating abortion in the UK.After the Prime Minister met Cardinal O’Brien in a private discussion, the Cardinal’s spokesman indicated that Blair said the current legislation “troubled him”, and that he would “re-open the debate” especially considering recent scientific advances in medicine that increase infants survivability outside the womb. Downing Street, however, demurred to comment on Blair’s private conversation. Blair has been trying to avoid making the debate an election issue. “This is not primarily a religious issue, it is a human issue,” stated Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who has encouraged the Prime Minister to re-open debate in Parliament. “Abortion is the wrong answer to fear and insecurity. As a society we need to look at ways of supporting women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy.”“People know, perhaps instinctively, that the goodness of a society is known not by its wealth but by the way which it treats the most vulnerable of human beings, the ones with little or no claim on public attention.”According to LIFE, a UK pro-life charity, there have been 6 million abortions carried out in the United Kingdom since the 1967 laws decriminalized abortion. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-rising-number-of-abortions-confirm-need-to-change-1967-law/

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