by Andrew Halloway
Issues around the recent two parliamentary votes in one week in favour of abortion up to full term and assisted suicide.
The fallout from MPs’ votes to end lives
Many Christians were deeply disappointed – and disturbed – by MPs voting to pass laws that would allow assisted suicide and abortion up to birth. Stephen Green of Christian Voice wrote: “MPs voted for death over life twice in one week.” A majority of MPs (379 to 137) voted to decriminalise abortion on 17 June, which was a section of the Government, Crime and Policing Bill, “hijacking” the Bill, according to Green
Three days later, on 20 June, MPs gave a third and final reading to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, passing it with a smaller majority of just 23 votes (314 to 291). Green notes, “Despite public opinion, no fewer than six royal medical colleges had welcomed and / or campaigned for abortion decriminalisation. Approving of abortion is now an article of faith among the British establishment.
“Doctors were more equivocal over assisted suicide, but that made no difference to MPs. They are imposing their death wish on us all. This may well come to be seen as the week Great Britain died”.
Approving of abortion is now an article of faith among the British establishment
A third of pregnancies end in abortion
Campaigners have warned that decriminalising abortion, which the Commons approved in June, will only increase the number of babies legally killed in Britain. Already a record high of almost three in ten conceptions in England and Wales now lead to abortion, government figures show. Only a decade ago, it was two in ten. In some areas, the rate is as high as four in ten. The Government’s website states that 251,377 abortions were carried out in 2022 on women resident in England and Wales – the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced and an increase of 17% over the previous year.
The Director of Advocacy and Policy at Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), the former MP Caroline Ansell, said: “The scale of abortion in England and Wales is heartbreaking… Behind these statistics are women whose stories of trauma and regret are rarely heard in public debate… “ The rise in abortions follows the introduction of the ‘pills by post’ scheme. Right To Life UK’s Spokesperson Catherine Robinson commented: “This is a national tragedy… The clear solution here is the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments.” (Photo – Former Tory MP Caroline Ansell, now CARE’s Director of Advocacy and Policy, laments the rise in abortions. Credit: CARE)
“Behind these statistics are women with stories of trauma and regret”
The decriminalisation of abortion came about through an amendment to the Government, Crime and Policing Bill from the Labour MP for Gower, Tonia Antoniazzi, who actually claims she was not advocating for abortion up to birth. She said: “This is not abortion up to 40 weeks. That misinformation and misinterpretation of what we’ve done I have found quite hard to cope with, because people do think I think it’s OK [to abort up to 40 weeks], and I don’t think it’s OK.”
St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds – one of many Catholic hospices facing closure
(photo – St Gemma’s RC hospice in Leeds)
Hospices will close rather than carry out assisted suicide.
If assisted suicide is passed by the House of Lords and becomes law, British Catholic hospices and care homes face closure if forced to comply with it. The legislation would force palliative care institutions to participate in assisted suicide. Catholic institutions would refuse on the basis of Christian teachings, unless the Bill is amended to allow institutional conscientious objection, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.
Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool told the Catholic Herald that the Catholic bishops were “shocked and disappointed” that the Bill had passed and were concerned for the future of palliative care. St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds has stated: “If compliance with assisted dying provision becomes a condition for NHS funding, institutions like St Gemma’s may have no alternative but to cease operations entirely.” Also, under the bill, an individual requesting assisted suicide could take legal action against an institution that does not facilitate it.
Public worry about disabled if assisted suicide becomes law
The Assisted Suicide Bill may have been passed by the House of Commons and has general public support, but polling on the impact of assisted suicide on the disabled shows strong concern for them.
A poll commissioned by disability rights group Not Dead Yet UK reveals that two in three (67 per cent) agree that the UK should prioritise improving access to care for disabled people before introducing assisted suicide (only 13 per cent disagree). This rises to 72 per cent among disabled people themselves.
The most common worry is that disabled people will be coerced into ending their lives early.
Caption: Nigel Farage has condemned the extremes of both the assisted dying legislation and decriminalisation of abortion
No credit needed – public domain
Reform to repeal suicide and abortion bills if elected
According to the Mail on Sunday, Reform UK insiders say the party is likely to overturn both the assisted suicide legislation and the abortion up to birth amendment if both become law and they win power at the next election. Reform leader Nigel Farage said: “I voted against the assisted dying bill, not out of a lack of compassion, but because I fear that the law will widen in scope. If that happens, the right to die may become the obligation to die.” He described the Bill as “un-Christian in every way”. However, only three of the five Reform MPs actually voted against assisted dying – Farage, Lee Anderson and James McMurdock (who has since voluntarily resigned the whip pending an investigation). Both Richard Tice and Sarah Pochin voted in favour of assisted dying.
Farage also said after the vote to decriminalise abortion: “I am pro-choice, but I think it’s ludicrous that we can allow abortion up to 24 weeks. Yet, if a child is born prematurely at 22 weeks, your hospital will move heaven and earth and probably succeed in [making sure] that child survives.” (photo – Nigel Farage MP – credit public domain)
“The right to die may become the obligation to die” – Nigel Farage
Meanwhile, Right to Life UK is asking people who are members or supporters of either Reform UK or the Conservative Party to ask their respective parties to include action against both assisted suicide and the decriminalisation of abortion in their manifesto. The Tories issued a two-line whip against the Crime and Policing Bill at Third Reading, because it contained the Antoniazzi abortion amendment. Right to Life said: “Now, they must go further. We need the Conservative Party to publicly pledge to repeal both the abortion up to birth amendment and the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill, if the Conservative Party returns to power – or forms part of a coalition government.”
Farage has also said he wants to make it easier for people to have children, confirming that his party will back more generous tax breaks for married people and scrap the two-child benefit limit.