THE
P RTAL
September 2012
Page 3
Lead Story
Will Burton is worried
An article in a recent edition of the Catholic Herald caught my eye. It concerned abortion. It led me
to www.abort67.co.uk/facts/uk-abortion-statistics.html. Now, it is true that this site contains some strong
stuff. It pulls no punches. Here I found these statistics:
According to Department of Health
statistics the total number of
abortions on residents of England
and Wales was 189,574. 6,535
abortions were performed on
non-residents in the UK making
a grand total of 196,109.
The number of abortions
to actually save the life of the
mother are under
9.185,291 of abortions were
undertaken for social reasons.
For example if a pregnant
woman does not wish to change
her lifestyle by remaining
pregnant.1635 abortions were
undertaken on grounds that
continuation of pregnancy would
involve risk of injury to the mental or
physical health of existing children in the
pregnant woman’s family.
2290 abortions were performed for risk
that the child would be born handicapped,
this could include Downs Syndrome, cleft
palate, spina bifida or club foot. 34% of
women undergoing abortions had one or
more previous abortions. The proportion
has risen from about 29% since 1998. 96%
of abortions in 2010 were funded by the
NHS.
Shocking though this is, matters are about to get
worse, if the Journal of Medical Ethics is anything to
go by. Now, a new evil is on the horizon.
A serious article in the Journal of Medical Ethics
calls for the introduction of infanticide for social and
medical reasons. Titled “After-birth abortion: why
should the baby live?” it contains these words:
After-birth abortion (killing a newborn)
should be permissible in all cases where
abortion is, including cases where the
newborn is not disabled.”
The authors, Alberto Giubilini of the
University of Milan and Francesca Minerva
of Melbourne University, suggest “foetuses
and newborns do not have the same moral
status as actual persons”. Therefore laws
that permit the one ought to permit the
other.
Lord Alton, co-chairman of the
All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life
Group, was quoted by the Catholic
Herald saying that infanticide was the
“chilling and unassailable” logical step
for a society that permits killing a baby
one day before birth.
He continued: “That the Journal of
Medical Ethics should give space to such a
proposition illustrates not a slippery slope,
but the quagmire into which medical ethics
and our wider society have been sucked.”
Julian Savulescu, the editor of the Journal of Medical
Ethics, has defended the publication of the paper on
the British Medical Journal website, saying:
“What is disturbing is not the arguments
in this paper nor its publication in an
ethics journal. It is the hostile, abusive,
threatening responses that it has elicited.
More than ever, proper academic discussion
and freedom are under threat from fanatics
opposed to the very values of a liberal
society.”
The Portal takes into account sections 2271 to 2273
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here we learn
of “the moral evil of every procured abortion”. For
years the Church has battled against the wickedness of
abortion. This new threat to the lives of our children is
of grave concern.
To find out more go to the web site mentioned above
or to www.spuc.org.u k. If nothing else, it will inform
your prayers for this month.