This abortion law change is evil, pure and simple

MPs have approved the biggest change to abortion law in England and Wales for 50 years.

It was done via an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill. If this comes as a surprise to you, it is because the proposed change has received very little in way of proper scrutiny, let alone parliamentary debate. Coming the same week as an expected vote on assisted suicide legislation, it could be a profoundly dark few days for the UK.

The amendment that won support from a majority of 379 MPs to 137, (a majority of 242) states that “no offence is committed by a woman in relation to her own pregnancy“ in relation to “the law related to abortion“. It means women are removed from any prospect of being criminalised for causing their own abortion, no matter the reason and no matter the time that it is carried out – right up to birth.

To be clear, this means a woman might have an abortion at, say, 36 weeks gestation, long past the current 24-week time limit, and even far beyond the point where the baby could survive outside the womb, and this would not constitute an offence. If this change is approved by the House of Lords when it looks at the Crime and Policing Bill (it almost certainly will be), it means that unborn babies will have lost the scant, remaining protections in our law.

For context, the UK already has some of the most liberal and permissive abortion laws in the Western world. Since 1967, when the Abortion Act was passed, there have been more than 10 million abortions. In 2022, the last year where we have official figures, more than 252,000 abortions took place in England and Wales alone – a 17% increase on the previous year.

The old law at least offered some, very modest, protection for preborn babies. Yet even these have been deemed unnecessary. The amendment supported by MPs tonight is all about the mother, but it has nothing to say about the unborn.

This is evil, pure and simple. It is also deeply grievous and sad. Not only will it harm the unborn, it will harm women as well. At Christian Research Action and Education (CARE), we always stress that both lives matter in every pregnancy. This new change will undermine the God-given dignity of mothers and babies. For women, it will open the door to more, traumatic abortions, with all of the guilt, shame, and trauma this involves. It is also likely to result in the loss of more, precious human lives.

Why has this happened?

Sadly, it is the result of politicians’ desire to worship at the altar of autonomy. Inevitably, if you make human freedom your god, you will always prioritise those able to choose what they want. The casualties of this are those without a voice.

Yet, even amid this moral darkness, there is hope. Polling has routinely shown that the public wants tighter abortion laws. The rising generation are not only showing some signs of spiritual hunger, they also tend to be more pro-life.

The question for the church is: are we willing to speak into the issue of abortion? Are we consistent in addressing it where we can? Will we equip people to understand why God’s better story about the beginning of life is more beautiful?

More than this, are we willing to show the love of Christ by doing all that we can to foster and adopt babies without a home? What support can we give to crisis pregnancy centers?

We might also ask: what is our tone like when we speak about this issue? Praise God for the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. There is hope for all, even those who have had an abortion in the past. Jesus’ forgiveness is full and free.

I believe that future generations will look back in horror at how we have treated women and the unborn. I pray that a day will come soon when a new generation of MPs have the courage to turn the tide on abortion and pass life-affirming laws consistent with the message that both lives matter. Until they do, we must faithfully speak this truth in love.