Scottish Catholic Observer

THE devolution of abortion to Scotland is a seismic shift for politics. In terms of sheer scale, abortion is the greatest human rights abuse of our age. Since the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967 official figures show that 8.2 million lives have been lost by abortion. That’s like losing the combined populations of Scotland and Wales. So many people that we would have known and who would have had families of their own are absent.

At Westminster, attempts to restrain abortion made things worse. The law, which is being handed to us now, permits abortion right up to birth in cases of disability, the conscience clause in the bill has been greatly narrowed by the Supreme Court and the authorities have turned a blind eye to the implementation of the law such that we have abortion on demand. Scottish society will no doubt at some point have to assess the law for which it has responsibility. Post-abortion trauma, discrimination, conscience are all area where the law is blatantly at odds with the other values the Scottish people have supported in recent years. How can a blind eye continue to be turned to the number of women who suffer depression and regret after abortion? When every other procedure entails comprehensive information on what is involved and the potential risks at stake, how long can abortion be exempt from this level of attention?

Those who blithely talk of a woman’s choice and isolate it from the context and reality of what abortion means have much to fear from the truth. That truth reveals the barbarity of what is going on, the callous disregard for human life and the stark truth that for many woman they thought they had no other choice than abortion. SPUC provides support to those who have already been damaged as well as promoting our conviction that there is always a better choice than abortion. We are aiming for our politicians to come to that realisation as well.

My right to choose

Since becoming pregnant and over the course of my child’s development in the womb, I have become increasingly disturbed by the mantra we so often hear from the pro-abortion groups of ‘my body, my choise.’ I’d heard this statement so many times over the years that I’d almost become numb to it, but now while I contemplate the life that is growing in my body, this argument which still underpins the whole pro-abortion ideology has brought a new level of disturbance to me.

While I was at the annual pro-life vigil in Glasgow last month, as I stood at the back of the pro-life crowd and close to the backs of the pro-abortion group who were shouting their ever so familiar chants, I felt even more protective of my little boy in my womb. It gave me chills to think that I could walk over to them, tell them I was 22 weeks pregnant —with a very obvious bump and kicking baby in utero—say I had decided I didn’t want to have this baby and they would support ‘my right to choose’ to kill my child. The sinister reality of their belief and their mission hit me hard and instinctively I didn’t want to be near them, or have my child near them. Yet they claim they represent us women, with heroic efforts to fight for our rights when in fact the stark and undeniable reality is that what they fight for, is the right to kill.

Interestingly, if I walked up to the same group of people and said I’ve decided I’m going to get in my car and drive to Edinburgh on the wrong side of the motorway at 100mph, I’m going to assume that they wouldn’t be so supportive of my ‘right to choose’ in this scenario. Why? Would it be wrong to choose to do so? I’m going to assume that they would agree that it is. That they would be happy to say that they can’t condone it, not just because it’s illegal, but because it’s wrong to put my own life and others at risk in such a direct way. My ‘right to choose’ would not be upheld in this case, because some choices are simply wrong. What I cannot fathom in light of this, is the incoherency of the logic and the moral blindness behind their stance on abortion.

Is it not time for the moral reality that we are dealing with, to cut through the mantras and rhetoric of the pro-abortion movement? Science states that the life of the unborn child is biologically unique and distinct from the mother, from the moment of conception. Women have scans at 12 weeks and announce that they are expecting a baby. We now have a clearer window into the womb than ever before, and we know we are dealing with a human being. History proves that in the past we have undermined the humanity of our fellow human beings and denied their rights, with the existence of injustices such as slavery; an injustice that was legal.

Therefore with science on our side and history to learn from, we can stand quite firmly and unashamedly in the knowledge and conviction that abortion is wrong. This ‘choice’ is wrong. It always is. We simply cannot justify the killing of our own children. This is not a right, and it is a moral tragedy that we claim it should be.

As a mother, my instinct is to protect my unborn child and if I was ever in a situation where I felt I couldn’t cope, such as a crisis pregnancy, the last people I would like to meet on the path of seeking help would be a group of people who fight for ‘my right to choose.’ I do not want the right to choose to kill my child. In fact I shudder at the thought someone would wish to grant me this right. These individuals are not for my welfare, because ending the life of my child that I carry in my body would never bring that about. Why not fight for my right to get the support I need? My right to a safe and secure place to have my child? My right to be free from the unsupportive or abusive relationship that has led me into this place of fear? But please do not fight for that which will destroy two lives, my child’s and my own, and claim you support my anything.

So to the members of these abortion groups, please put aside the placards and quieten the chants for enough time to take a good hard look at what you stand for. In the meantime, I’ll keep myself and my unborn child well clear of your path.

Rachel Munro, development officer, SPUC Scotland

Write to Life

Political values are informed by the values lived and promoted in our society. These values are no more evident than in the stories we tell through media and entertainment. That is why SPUC Scotland has launched a creative forum to convey the prolife message through spoken word, song, music, and various forms of media.

We tell stories daily. Routinely we listen to them during our office breaks, conversations on the commute home and on a national level through the news, soap operas and films. The Bible is littered with beautiful, powerful stories. Pro-life stories, however, have been pushed out of the conversation. This ensuing silence hurts people whose lives have been affected by abortion. This silence hurts the babies, the

children, which could not grow up to be their own unique story. This silence means ‘three parent families’ and other eugenic practices have been ushered into the marketplace disregarding human rights legislation enshrined for our

protection after the Second World War II. This silence has allowed a full scale commercialisation of women and

pregnancy. Only a whisper of resistance could be formed to stop various legislation passing through Westminster in 2015, legislation which is clearly banned in Europe.

SPUC Scotland successfully launched their creative initiative in October. They will premiere Motherwell Express during Lentfest 2016—the Glasgow festival run by the remarkable AGAP theatre under the skilful direction of Stephen Callaghan. Write to Life will run writing workshops and perform at fundraisers from the New Year.

“We are very excited about this initiative,” Rachel McKenzie, SPUC Scotland communications officer, said. “The work of SPUC’s sister organisation Abortion Recovery Care and Helpline (ARCH) will influence Write to Life as the voice of women, and men, hurt by abortion must be heard. We hope MSPs in Holyrood in the run up to the 2016 election will listen to stories about the pain of abortion, and let this shape their views on the issue. There is so much more evidence since 1967 about the development of a baby in the womb, baby scans have transformed our understanding. Yet the facts alone do not change enough hearts and thus we also need too present our message in ways which do. We’ve already seen this in action when one of our members Becky Kidd, aged 19, wrote the following poem which was quickly passed around the world when we made it available online.”

I am the voiceless

I lie in warmth and darkness and wait for the light;

I’m gaining my senses, my hearing, my sight.

I wriggle my toes and suck on my thumb;

I hear my mother’s voice, a soft gentle hum.

Ask them if I’m human, they’ll answer you no.

I’m telling you I am, I just need time to grow.

I’m here, I’m alive, I just can’t speak;

so give me a voice, speak up for the weak.

The journey is long, and yes there will be pain,

but don’t hide from the storm, go out in the rain.

Don’t, and you’ll be asked on judgement day,

why you stayed silent and hid away.

You never know the things I might achieve,

if you just give me the chance, to live and to breathe.

I could have been the one, to help heal the sick,

maybe find a cure for cancer, but I’m the one no one picked.

I could have been the one, to give riches to the poor,

but the people in power see my death as a cure.

I could have been the one to stop war among nations,

but they took my life away in one simple operation.

So I’m asking you, go out, for me and take a stand,

for I am the voiceless, the words are in your hands.

©Rebecca Kidd 2015

A culture of life

The creative area of society is one of many that we are working on to nurture a culture of life and defend against threats to life. Recently we have been considering the danger of eugenics presented by a new technology called CRISPR, which Dr Calum McKellar of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics explained to us, is a new, cheap and relatively simple technology that allows human genes to be edited so that life can potentially be designed to eradicate imperfection or enhance abilities. It further threatens our concept of life as a gift.

Aldous Huxley published his science fiction book Brave New World in 1932 which promoted a eugenic ideology where humans could be manufactured with the traits desired by society. We now have the technology to enact the nightmare scenario that Huxley was warning about. In that vein, SPUC Scotland recently responded to a government consultation to warn of the eugenic mind-set being applied to prenatal screening, which purports to find cures for disability, but actually seeks to eliminate disabled people. The mind-set of Brave New World is frighteningly evident in such practices. The pro-life message urgently needs to counteract it.

— http://www.spucscotland.org

PIC: PAUL McSHERRY