Decriminalised abortion is legalised infanticide

Last week the story broke of a UK mother who has been jailed for having an abortion after the legal limit.

The woman in question ordered abortion pills by post, ending her baby’s life when she was eight months pregnant. The legal limit for abortion in the UK is 24 weeks. She was 2-3 months over the legal limit. This is fraudulent on her part and irresponsible on the part of the clinic. I would say this is a reason mother and baby deserve to be seen by a doctor – mail-order medicine in this situation is entirely inappropriate.

There has been uproar in the media because the mother was arrested, charged and sentenced, with many commentators claiming that this is a reason to decriminalise abortion in the UK altogether. If anything, this is proof the current system is working as intended. She broke the law and went to prison. What is the point of having laws if there are no consequences for breaking the law?

Without a legal limit, what is to stop a mother from ending her baby’s life a day before he/she is born? Or even the day he/she is due to be born. If we go that far, what’s to say we shouldn’t allow parents to end their baby’s life a day after birth? Where do we draw the line?

I would draw the line at conception. Surely, logic dictates that life either begins at the moment of conception or at birth. We know the latter to be untrue; therefore, it must be the former. Having some murky grey area in the middle is arbitrary and proves to be unhelpful to mothers and deadly to babies.

Feminists have repeatedly chanted “my body, my choice” at anyone who dares to engage in this sensitive conversation to shut down the debate. I hope I am not the first to enlighten them that this is not a conversation about women’s bodily autonomy; we’re not talking about the mother’s body here but the baby inside of her.

I know many people who were born prematurely, earlier than eight months, in fact, who have gone on to live very fulfilled lives. The baby we’re talking about in this instance was perfectly viable.

Some people have argued that the baby would have been unwanted. The value of a life isn’t determined by whether someone else wants them or not. I’ve had a few people in my DMs this week who have let me know they were unwanted until they were born, and their parents were surprised by how much they loved them. But even if that was not the case, there is always another option. So many couples want to care for and love a child but cannot have one of their own. Adoption is a wonderful gift to both the baby and the parents.

For those who want more information, here are some good organisations fighting to protect the lives of unborn children: Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, Right to Life, March for Life UK, Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline, The Alma Mater Fund, Rachel’s Vineyard, Her Voice, Life Matters.

New figures show abortion is at an all-time high in the UK. It is time to have a conversation about prevention, providing better alternatives, and protecting and promoting the sanctity of life.

I leave you with a prime example of how dangerous this conversation has become. Here we have one of my colleagues who would call themselves a libertarian or freedom fighter, fighting for the freedom to kill instead of for the freedom to live. My good friend Emma Webb does a great job of destroying such a warped perspective. Not everyone on ‘our side’ in other issues is on the side of the baby. I pray we can change that: