Ethics

You may have heard the sad news that amendments to the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill on animal-human hybrids, “saviour” siblings, a child's need for a father and upper gestational age limits for abortion were all lost on 19 and 20 May.

Things could be about to get even worse as the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill reaches report stage in the House of Commons next week when it can be further amended. You may also be aware that, according to Government statistics released on 19 June, there were sadly a record number of 198,500 abortions in England and Wales in 2007 and Scotland's statistics were also the highest ever. A baby is now aborted on average every two and a half minutes in the UK and less than 1% of abortions are because of a risk that the child will be born handicapped, the remaining 99% are because the child is unwanted.

Dr Evan Harris (Liberal Democrat) and two other MPs have put down two amendments to the 1967 Abortion Act, one effectively allowing abortion on request up to 24 weeks with the signature of only one doctor and the other allowing nurses and midwives to perform abortions. The law already allows the Secretary of State to approve premises for abortion, so if these amendments are passed, abortion will be like any other medical procedure (such as removal of a wart, knee cartilage or a hernia repair where only informed consent is required) and allow nurses to perform medical abortions in general practitioner's surgeries, polyclinics, cottage hospitals and family planning centres with completion at home.

From 6 - 10 July the British Medical Association is holding their 2008 Annual Representative Meeting in Edinburgh and this meeting provides an opportunity for doctors from all parts of the profession to debate motions relating to professional practice. Evan Harris is also bringing a motion to the Edinburgh meeting that on the surface appears to endorse a Christian doctor's conscientious objection to participating in abortion. But this right is already granted to doctors by the Abortion Act and the hidden intention is to bar doctors with conscientious objection to abortion from counselling patients with unplanned pregnancies. One glimmer of good news is a motion from Cardiff doctors to the Edinburgh meeting acknowledging that abortion can be a psychologically traumatic process for women, and urging the British Medical Association to campaign for increased counselling and support for women before and after an abortion.

In 2007 the overall age-standardised abortion rate was 18.6 per 1,000 women resident in England and Wales aged 15-44 years, but the under-18 rate was 19.8 per 1,000 women and the under-16 abortion rate was 4.4 per 1,000 women, both higher than in 2006. If the amendments proposed by Dr Evan Harris are carried, a mother with an unwanted pregnancy (many of whom will be teenagers) may be barred access to the counsel of a Christian doctor at a time of emotional turmoil. A Christian doctor could be forced to refer such patients straight to pro-abortion colleagues without being allowed to discuss alternatives like adoption for the mother to consider before making her final decision.

As Christians with a minority voice in today's secular UK it can be difficult to know what we can do when the Government seems intent upon legislation that will exacerbate some of the moral dilemmas already facing us and our teenagers. But to paraphrase the Right Honorable Edmund Burke “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”, so may I encourage you to do three things?

1. Write urgently to your MP asking them to vote against Evan Harris' amendments, their address is: House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
2. Write urgently to the Prime Minister asking Mr Brown to exert his influence to uphold the government's position that the Abortion Law should not be amended. His address is: 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AA. Please stress what effect these unnecessary changes would have for both women and the unborn and upon medical care itself in the UK and urge the PM and your MP to oppose any liberalisation of the law.
   These votes are likely to occur in the week beginning 30 June so please write your letter asap and post it first class, a briefing paper on the CMF website (www.cmf.org.uk/ethics/letter_writing_on_abortion.htm) gives a number of points that you could make.
3. Pray that for the sake of mothers, babies, doctors and society that the abortion law will not be further liberalised.

I am indebted to Dr Peter Saunders, General Secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship for permission to reproduce material from Christian Medical Fellowship publications.