I am wholeheartedly with the clone on this one. Human life is the greatest election issue there will ever be.
in our country today, every single day children like Zachary are murdered. Their mothers walk into abortion clinics and let someone kill their children. At the same time that parents like us are grieving the loss of their sons and daughters, other sons and daughters are being stamped out of existence simply because their parents cannot be bothered to fulfil their responsibilities.
That is wrong. It is immoral. It is evil. There is no other word to describe a society that murders its innocents because it cannot be bothered to look after them. Evil. Pure and utter unadulterated evil.
Two years ago Nadine Dorries attempted to steer through an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would have reduced the age limit for abortions to 20 weeks. It was a sensible move, based on the clear clinical evidence of the viability of children at that point. There are enough examples of children born just a few days older then Zachary was when he died who have survived and are now fully healthy. It was a proposal built not on subjective opinions about when life begins or complicated arguments about blastocysts or embryonic fetuses, but rather based on simple clinical evidence.
The response from the Labour front bench was horrifying. Although Labour claimed to be allowing a free vote on the subject, Harriet Harman used her official role to speak against the move and then proceeded to whip Labour MPs through the “No” lobbies. In effect Labour voted to continue to kill babies simply because the parents could not be bothered to look after them.
In comparison, the leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron came out publicly in favour of a reduction in the limit on abortion to 20 weeks and has since come out publicly to once again promote such a proposal. Of all the three main party leaders, he is the only one who would vote to save the lives of innocent children, murdered because their parents think they can just discard the precious lives they have created.
That is why I am voting Conservative tomorrow. I am aware there are many other issues that we face as a nation – the national debt, immigration, the war in Afghanistan to name but a few. But surely the mark of a moral society is how it treats the most vulnerable in its midsts..
I suspect that in Australia and the UK, at least, we’ll be voices crying in the wilderness on the subject of abortion. It’s one of the areas where the root cause of sin, our desire to supplant God as ruler of our lives, is most clearly seen. Too many in our societies want to have sex without bearing the responsibility for the children that might result. And for many women, abortion is a sacred cow, a symbol that they are the owners of their bodies.
Ultimately, the battle against abortion is a battle against selfishness. And the best way to win this battle is to preach the gospel. The more Christians there are, the more Christian politicians there will be, and the more they’ll be prepared to take risks in areas such as this.
thanks Roger,
I think I want to have a more nuanced response than that. True, abortion is an act of selfishness but we really need to often direct our disapproval to individual and a culture who persuade these women than they are making the right choice, rather than the women themselves.
Yes, we are all responsible for our actions, but let’s not lose sight of the countless women who are injured by this.
Hi David,
When I wrote my first post, I was thinking more of the opinions displayed in articles such as this one from the Sydney Morning Herald last week:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/where-women-still-dont-own-their-bodies-20100504-u716.html
than the situation of individual women.
Additionally, I was thinking of the situation in 2006, when a bill was introduced and passed, removing an amendment to the Theraputic Goods Act which meant that abortion drugs couldn’t be imported into Australia without the express permission of the Federal health minister. The backers of the bill were 4 women politicians, from the Labour, Liberal, National & Australian Democrats parties.
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr140206.pdf
The symbolic message they were sending was clear – the right to abortion is an issue of such importance to women that they’ll unite across political parties to defend and extend it.