There was tragic news during the week when the official abortion statistics were released.
In 2021 there were 214,869 terminations, the highest number since the procedure became legal in Great Britain through the 1967 Abortion Act. The number of abortions have been increasing every year since 2016.
“The pandemic, and the policies adopted by the government in response, have had a clear impact on women’s pregnancy choices,” said Clare Murphy, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a major abortion provider. “Faced with economic uncertainty and job insecurity, women and their partners have been making sometimes tough decisions around continuing or ending a pregnancy.”
For once, I agree with the sentiments from PBAS. There is no doubt in my mind that the lockdown, the cost of living crisis and the fuel crisis is contributing to women feeling less confident about starting or indeed enlarging their families.
What should the Catholic response be to such damning numbers? First, we should take a moment to pray for the souls of those unborn children never given a chance of life. Each and every single abortion is a tragedy. We are told in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” We should also pray for their mothers who decided that they were not in a position to embrace life and chose instead the tragic route of abortion.
Secondly, we should not be under any illusions that the bulk of these abortions were made by desperate teenagers. In fact, by age group the abortion rate was highest among 22-year-old women, at 31 per 1,000.
It is also shocking that the biggest increase in abortion was in the age group that we might expect to welcome children – the increase in the abortion rate was most pronounced among 30 to 34-year-old women. Over the last decade it has risen significantly from 17.2 per 1,000 in 2011 to 22.1 per 1,000 last year.
Finally, growing numbers of women having a termination were already mothers – 57 per cent last year, up from 51 per cent in 2011. I find this statistic heart-breaking. These women know and understand what it is like to nurture and care for a child from conception and they have experienced the joy of welcoming their children to the world. However, despite this they have ended their pregnancies not only denying their child his or her right to life, but also denying their existing children the joy and challenges of having a new addition in the family.
These statistics should prompt some serious soul searching for all of us. It shows yet again how Britain can be a cold, unwelcoming place for children, mothers and their families. There is every indication that it will become colder and harsher in the coming months. If ever we needed proof of just how strong the culture of death is, again it can be seen in the fact that the lives of 214,869 unborn children were ended in 2021.
We must each individually and as a society try to build a culture of life. This not only includes improving the economic system for families, for instance having a tax system that recognises the responsibility of raising a child, but also having a society that does not view children as a burden, or merely an added extra onto the life of an adult that needs managing. Our society should see children as the wonderful gift they are and acknowledge the extraordinary promise they bring us, as well as how necessary they are for our future.
Unless and until we see this cultural shift, we should not be surprised when the tragedy of abortion continues to occur.
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