In denial about abortion
Sir: Mary Wakefield (‘Who cares about abortion?’, 10 September) bravely argues that Britain needs a rational and reasoned debate about our abortion laws. Since 1967 there have been seven million abortions in Great Britain: in the past 12 months there were 189,574, with 48,348 women having had one before and, according to a parliamentary reply, some as many as eight during their lifetime. Lord Steel, the author of the 1967 Act, has rightly described this as ‘horrific’ and has said there are ‘too many’. About that, at least, we should all agree.
A more profound debate would consider the status of the unborn child. An unborn baby with a disability — from Down’s syndrome to a cleft palate — may be aborted up to birth (so much for anti-discrimination laws, human rights and equality). Others may be aborted up to 24 weeks in barbaric procedures.
It has been said that a nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope, and Mary Wakefield is right: we are a nation in total denial.
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