Back in 1967 when abortion was legalized in the UK thanks to Lord David Steel, the paedophile protecter, we were told that it would be a rare and unusual medical procedure. In the first full year of legal abortions, 1969, 54,819 lives were ended. By 2021 that number had soared to 214,256. So that means that thanks to Lord Steel just over 10 million unborn babies have now been aborted in the UK and this year 1 in 4 conceptions will end in abortion. These are appalling figures but some think that the numbers are not high enough. I write this today, thinking about my daughter Olaf, born at just 26 weeks almost 22 years ago weighing 1 lb 4 oz.
As her mother was rushed for an emergency forced birth at 26 weeks, we were told to brace ourselves for the worst. The months that followed her birthday – June 29 – were ones I shall never forget. After a few weeks, for the first time I was allowed to hold this little creature who was dressed in an Ireland jumper stolen from a teddy bear. It was late August before we were told about WHEN she was going home not IF she was coming home. In late September we took her back home but were warned about all sorts of possible long term consequences.
As I write, Olaf is also writing, sitting her last paper at Oxford. She has her mother’s girly swot genes and her father & grandfather’s drinking and innate intelligence genes so she might well get a Geoff despite an Oxford career marked by too much drinking. She is a champion swimmer and will head off to drama school this autumn to pursue her career as an actor – I still smile as I remember her playing Harold Wilson in Made in Dagenham when at school. Cripes, she even has a boyfriend but the less said about that the better. In short: she is wonderful and how glad I am that everyone, including her, fought so hard at the beginning.
Today there is outrage from the bien pensants and liberal media and political elite as Carla Foster, a mother of three starts a prison stretch which will see her out in months for killing her child. The limit for abortions in the UK is now 24 weeks although as a 24 week old foetus is killed in one room a 24 week old will be born prem in the next room and will survive. So, we are still killing viable human beings.
Carla knew what the limit was and what the penalties were for breaking it, she searched that out on google. But she lied about how pregnant she was to get pills from the NHS which killed her foetus at 32-34 weeks. So having broken the law and killed a clearly viable life, she is paying a penalty. Cue outrage from folks saying that while they respect limits on abortion the act of breaking the law should be decriminalised. This, we are told, will not cause more abortions. That is patently not true. If you remove criminal penalties from killing babies more than 24 weeks old more babies will be killed as there will be no deterrent.
Folks like Labour MP Nadia Whittome claim this is all about women’s rights to chose. She tweeted today:
No woman should be in prison for making decisions about her own body. This shocking case highlights the urgent need to change the law. Abortion is healthcare. It must be decriminalised, now.
So for the 10 million dead babies abortion is “healthcare”. Not in my book. The logical extrapolation of Nadia’s position is that it is all about the mother and thus a foetus can be aborted more or less up to birth. If I misrepresent her, where would she set the limit, in the context of my daughter Olaf being born at 26 weeks?
And if there is a limit set by Nadia which is before term what deterrent would she impose for those, like Carla Foster, who know the limit, lie to get abortion pills and then break the term limit? At what point does Nadia give a baby rights, protected in law, not to be murdered?