By Simon Caldwell, Catholic Herald (UK), June 22, 2023
Government figures have indicated that a record numbers of abortions took place in England and Wales last year.
Statistics released by the Department of Health and Social Care show that 123,219 abortions for residents of England and Wales took place in the six months between January 1 and June 30 2022.
The figure is 17,731 higher than the total recorded for the first six months of 2021, which was 105,488 for residents of England and Wales.
That year saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales over a full year, at 214,256 for residents of England and Wales.
The data for the first six months of 2022 indicates that a new record will be set for annual numbers of abortions, if replicated in the second half of the year.
Catherine Robinson of Right to Life UK said: “It is a national tragedy that 123,219 lives were lost to abortion between January and June 2022.
Catherine Robinson of Right to Life UK said: “It is a national tragedy that 123,219 lives were lost to abortion between January and June 2022.
“Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.”
She pointed out that that the abortion industry and their allies in Parliament were in the meantime using the jailing of Carla Foster for 28 months, with 14 months to be spent on licence, after she aborted her baby, Lily, at eight months’ gestation to change the law to permit abortion on demand up to birth.
She said: “It seems this tragic number of lives being lost to abortion is not enough for abortion campaigners and they are set on doing everything they can to introduce extreme abortion legislation that would likely see even more lives lost to abortion.
“We are calling for the reinstatement of in-person appointments before abortions take place to ensure that the gestation of babies can accurately be assessed.
“At 32-34 weeks or around eight months’ gestation, baby Lily was a fully formed human child. If her mother had been given an in-person appointment by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service she would still be alive.
“We are also calling for a full inquiry into the abortion provider, BPAS, for sending out abortion pills to a woman whose baby, Lily, was 22 weeks beyond the legal limit for at-home abortions.”
She added: “The Government must firmly reject changing legislation to make abortion legal right up to birth, as is proposed by abortion campaigners, led by BPAS, who are using this tragic case to call for the removal of more abortion safeguards and the introduction of abortion up to birth.”
“This proposal is completely out of line with where women stand on the issue. Polling from Savanta ComRes on whether time limits for abortion should be increased showed that only one per cent of women in Great Britain wanted the time limit to be extended to more than 24 weeks and one per cent wanted it to be increased right through to birth, in contrast to 70 per cent of women who favoured a reduction in time limits.”
Yesterday, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court rejected an appeal against sentence lodged by Foster, 44, a mother of three from Staffordshire.
The bishops said the message was unique because it is the first time they have given over the annual Day for Life “to a Catholic woman who has had an abortion to share her experiences”.
The theme was “Listen to Her”, and “post-abortion trauma and the impact of abortion primarily on women, but also men and others” were examined.
In March, the House of Commons voted for an amendment to the Public Order Bill to criminalize any form of “influence” outside of all abortion facilities.
It makes prayer within a censorship zone punishable by an initial fixed penalty fine of £100, possibly rising to £1,000 if the accused is taken to court.
A month earlier, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a Catholic pregnancy counsellor, was acquitted of charges in connection with silent prayer near a closed abortion facility in Birmingham where the city council has implemented a 150-metre buffer zone via a Public Spaces Protection Order.
Fr Sean Gough, a Wolverhampton curate who had held up a sign reading “Praying for the Freedom of Speech”, was also cleared of wrong-doing.
This article first appeared HERE.