Rite and Reason:You can remove a child from the womb, but not out of the heart or the mind, writes David Alton
October 27th was the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act in the UK, an event with resonance in Ireland, from where so many women have availed of this law. To commemorate the nearly seven million unborn babies aborted in the intervening 40 years, events involving Christians of all denominations have been taking place.
With 600 abortions daily - and abortion allowed up to and even during birth on a disabled baby - who can doubt that this is an anniversary that must be commemorated and marked?
Forty years ago, as a sixth-former at school, I organised a petition against the Abortion Bill presented to parliament by David Steel of the Liberal Party.
Virtually the only opposition came from Catholic families and parishes. But having heard accounts of back-street abortions, and after being told that abortion would only ever be used in extremely serious circumstances, just 29 MPs voted against the Bill.
It sailed through with the support of the medical profession, the media and the established church. Few who supported it had any real idea of the floodgates they were opening.
Now, with nearly 200,000 abortions each year - 60,000 of which are undertaken by Marie Stopes International - and with the creation of a multi-million pound business - no one can plausibly hide behind the pretence that abortion in Britain only takes place in serious circumstances.
Each year we reflect on the enormity of the loss of life caused by war. In the first World War, 947,000 British people died and 450,000 in the second World War. Yet, without demur, nearly five times as many young nascent British lives have been claimed by the abortionists. Surely those lost lives are worth commemorating and mourning.
Far from limiting abortion to serious cases, 98 per cent of all of these British abortions have been done under the social clause - nothing to do with the hard cases with which we are regularly regaled.
The Sunday Timesrecently reported how the abortion industry has expanded its scope in countries like India to specifically target unwanted baby girls. Female genocide they called it.
The abortion of little girls merely because their gender is wrong, and the abortion of babies with a cleft palate, or any other unacceptable "design fault", has gradually shocked and changed British public opinion. Assiduous, intelligent and systematic parliamentary campaigns on issues like the upper time limit have also been altering parliamentary opinion.
A new crop of pro-life MPs ensures that the UK parliament knows the unborn will not be forgotten and that this issue will never be allowed to fade or go away. They counter the banal rhetoric about "the right to choose" by asserting that society has a right to know.
Don't women have the right to know about the 28 out of 37 studies that show a link between abortion and breast cancer? The right to know about the more than 30 studies that show a link between abortion and subsequent prematurely born babies? The right to know about post-abortion syndrome, trauma, regret and depression?
You can remove a child from the womb, but not out of the heart or the mind.
Last month a new poll - conducted for Life UK - showed huge public unease with current laws. Of those surveyed 85 per cent said abortion should be a last resort and 68 per cent said our upper time limits should be brought into line with our European neighbours (13 weeks compared with the UK's 24 weeks).
Significantly, women and young people were most in favour of a reduction to 13 weeks (72 per cent of women and 65 per cent of men). A majority also supported a compulsory cooling off period before abortions are agreed.
And the bad news for those MPs who want to get rid of the two-doctor requirement and allow nurses to undertake abortions is that the public disagrees. Fifty-nine per cent of women said the two-doctor requirement should stay and 75 per cent of women said nurses should not be authorised to undertake abortions.
Far from wanting the law extended to Northern Ireland, or made even more easily available, six out of 10 said the law should be urgently reviewed to reduce the number of abortions. Eighty-five per cent of people, including 89 per cent of women, said that "abortion has very serious consequences both for the health of women and the unborn and should be regarded as a last resort, if indeed it is used at all".
Also, 80 per cent of women said we should prevent abortion by offering attractive alternatives; 93 per cent of women want a legal "right to know" about the physical and psychological consequences of abortion; and seven out of 10 agreed that "making abortion too easily available cheapens the value of young life".
This survey shows that 40 years after parliament passed this law, public opinion in the UK has moved dramatically in our direction. The 40th anniversary should not be allowed pass without some action being taken on behalf of the unborn. Given its relevance to Ireland, this should be noted in your country too.
• A former Liberal Democrat MP, Lord Altonwas made a life peer in 1997. This is a edited version of an article published recently in the Catholic weekly, the Universe.