On the anniversary of the passage of the Abortion Act, right to life activists say they estimate there have been over ten million procedures to terminate unborn lives in the 55 years since the law came into force.
“The UK’s abortion law is failing both women and unborn babies”, commented Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson. “It is a national tragedy that 10,135,618 lives have been lost since the 1967 Abortion Act came into effect, each one a unique and valuable human being who was denied the right to life”, she added.
“Every one of these abortions represents a collective 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 continued.
According to Right to Life UK, more than one baby was lost to abortion every two and a half minutes across England, Wales, and Scotland in 2021; 26 lives were ended every hour.
The group say the number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high with 214,869 taking place in 2021, while 13,758 terminations were performed in Scotland in the same year.
Right to Life UK link this significant rise in abortions to the first full year that ‘DIY’ home abortion services have been operating in England and Wales. They say since ‘DIY’ home abortions were introduced, a number of significant problems have arisen.
Abortion statistics released by the Department of Health and Social Care show that in England and Wales, there was a total of 214,869 abortions in 2021, an increase of 4,009 abortions from 2020 when there were 210,860 abortions. Right to Life say this is the highest ever number on record.
“While we may pause to commemorate this tragedy, this day also serves as a call to action for people around the country to renew their efforts to do everything they can to help ensure more lives are saved from abortion in the future”, Catherine Robinson commented.
“This includes contacting MPs and asking them to ensure that protections for unborn babies are introduced and safeguards are strengthened to protect both mothers and babies - along with volunteering with pregnancy support centres and undertaking other pro-life activities that support mothers and their children in pregnancy and beyond”, she concluded.
The campaign group points to opinion polls which they say repeatedly show that the public wants increased protections for unborn babies and more support for mothers facing unplanned pregnancies – rather than the wholesale removal of legal safeguards around abortion.
RTL UK say polling from 2019 indicates that over 41% of Londoners believe abortion should be illegal in almost all circumstances.
Only 1% of the population want abortion to be available up to birth and 70% of women want the abortion limit to be reduced to 20 weeks or lower.
Catherine Robinson concluded:
“By being proactive and taking action, every single one of us can be part of building a pro-life nation where we protect and defend the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.”
