THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN
Abortion Briefing
This page describes abortion in terms of:
* the unborn child and the right to life
* abortion worldwide and the population-control movement
* disability and eugenics.
The unborn child and the right to life
The humanity of the unborn child
Birth is not the start of a new human life-just a change of
the baby's environment. A new life actually begins in the
womb (usually in the womb's fallopian tube) when a single
sperm cell from the father fertilises an egg (ovum) from the
mother.
At fertilisation (conception), a new, unique, living human
individual is present. He or she is not part of the mother
any more than he or she is part of the father. At conception
all the hereditary characteristics of the new human being
are established, including colour of eyes, gender and build.
Nothing more is needed to determine the development of the
embryo. All the information about how the baby is to grow
and develop is contained in the original single cell at
conception. Nothing is added after conception except oxygen
and nutrients (food and water), the same essentials that are
needed to sustain human life after birth.
The developing baby is known as:
* a zygote at the single-cell stage
* an embryo till the end of the eighth week
* a foetus from nine weeks (when the child's body is
essentially complete and recognisable as a miniature human
baby) until birth.
Humanity is not acquired but is inherent in all members of
the human race, including the unborn from the moment of
conception.
Types of abortion
The two types of abortion are:
spontaneous - a natural miscarriage
induced - the deliberate killing of an unborn child.
When most people talk about abortion, they mean induced
abortion-the deliberate killing of an unborn child.
The injustice of abortion
Abortion denies the most basic of human rights-the right to
life-which is justly due to each member of the human family.
Abortion is not only itself a grave injustice but it also
perpetuates other social injustices. Abortion does not solve
social problems, such as unstable relationships, poor
housing and financial insecurity, which lead women to seek
to end their pregnancies. It actually undermines the will of
society-at the levels of family, peer group and
government-to find humane solutions which do not involve
killing a baby.
The life of the mother
All human life is of equal value. The life of the child in
the womb is neither more nor less important than that of the
mother. There is therefore no moral objection to measures
aimed solely at curing a life-threatening condition in an
expectant mother, even if this leads to the child's death.
In such circumstances (for example, ectopic pregnancy in the
fallopian tube), treatment that is ethical does not involve
deliberately killing the baby.
If an unborn baby is old enough to survive outside the womb,
and if it is thought that there will be problems later in
the pregnancy, the baby can be delivered early and steps
should be taken to sustain the baby's life.
If there is disability, social problems or difficult
circumstances surrounding the child's conception, the right
response is one of compassion for the parents and the child.
It can never be compassionate deliberately to take innocent
human life.
Abortion's victims
Abortion is typically carried out by the dismemberment,
poisoning and/or premature expulsion of the unborn child. It
is usually an invasive procedure for the mother which, even
in the best hospital conditions, presents risks to her
physical and psychological health. Fathers and other family
members may also suffer after an abortion, the ethics of
healthcare professionals who take part in abortions are
compromised, and society as a whole is harmed by the
toleration of violence against the unborn child.
Early abortifacients
Abortion can be caused in the first two weeks of life by
birth-control methods which prevent the implantation of the
embryo in the mother's womb. Although many advocates of such
techniques refer to this action as contraceptive, it
actually involves the death of an embryo in the womb and is
therefore abortifacient. Abortion can be caused by:
* birth control implants
* birth control vaccines
* intra-uterine devices (coils)
* the morning-after pill
* other forms of contraceptive pill.
Ethical codes
Abortion is contrary to the medical ethics in the
Hippocratic oath, both in its original version (derived from
ancient Greece) and modern reformulations such as the World
Medical Association's 1948 Declaration of Geneva. The
declaration states: "I will maintain the utmost respect for
human life, from the time of conception."
The right to life of all members of the human family is
acknowledged in internationally-agreed conventions and
covenants such as:
* the 1949 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
* the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which
explicitly refers to such rights as applying to the unborn
* the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.
SPUC's opposition to abortion is based on ethical principles
that have received universal approbation, not on religious
teaching. While all major world religions promote the value
of life, and while SPUC's membership includes people of
various religions, SPUC is not a religious organisation.
Abortion worldwide and the population-control movement
The United Kingdom
Estimates of illegal abortions
The alleged number of illegal abortions was used as a reason
for legalising abortion in Britain. Before legalisation,
pro-abortionists claimed that there were 100,000 illegal
abortions each year. In 1966 the council of the Royal
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) offered
evidence to indicate that there were some 15,000 illegal
abortions annually in England and Wales. Subsequent events
suggest that these estimates were excessive.
Actual numbers of legal abortions
The Abortion Act was passed in 1967 and became effective the
year after. It applies to England, Wales and Scotland, but
not Northern Ireland. During the 30 years after the
implementation of the act, the total number of abortions
performed annually rose by nearly 700% such that some five
million abortions were performed in Britain. During the last
15 years of that period, the annual total of abortions
exceeded 170,000. In 1998 it was over 187,000-more than 510
a day-which is 87% greater than the pro-abortionists'
estimate of illegal abortion in the 1960s and over 1,100%
greater than the RCOG's estimate.
Reasons for abortion
Although more than 90% of abortions are certified as being
done to safeguard the mother's physical or mental health, it
is widely recognised that the majority of these abortions
are actually performed in response to social rather than
medical problems. Abortion in Britain is effectively
practised on demand.
Worldwide
The prohibition of abortion in the Hippocratic oath (c. 450
BC) suggests that terminations were performed by some in
ancient times. However, abortion only became widely
practised in the latter part of the 20th century.
Birth-control
Contraception and abortion
While contraception seeks to prevent sexual intercourse from
resulting in the conception of a child, abortion involves
the taking of the life of the child after conception. Some
methods of birth-control (e.g. sterilisation) are solely
contraceptive while others (e.g. the mini-pill) can also
cause an early abortion.
Birth-control and attitudes to human life
Contraception does not reduce the number of abortions.
Countries in the western world have freely available
contraception as well as widespread abortion. Ms Jean
Malcolm, director of a Brook Advisory Centre, told the
Edinburgh and Lothian Post: "It's partly because of a
greater availability of contraception that there are more
pregnancies. I suppose it's almost inevitable." (11 January
1992)
Contraception may also result in an anti-child mentality,
such that unplanned babies are regarded merely as the
undesirable results of contraceptive failure.
Population control
The population control movement is the world's largest and
most powerful promoter of abortion. Many countries have
legalised abortion because of concern at alleged
over-population. Population-growth is said to be the cause
of poverty, famine and environmental degradation, and
governments have used this to justify controlling the sizes
of families. Such measures infringe human rights, including
unborn children's right to life.
Family planning
Population control is sometimes wrongly described as family
planning. While family planning consists of couples' making
decisions about when to have children, population control
consists of governments or other agencies deciding how many
children couples can have, and enforcing such decisions.
Population control which masquerades as family planning
involves pressure and coercion, whether through media
propaganda, financial incentives, peer group pressure,
intimidation or physical force. Those who implement
population control have identified abortion as a critical
factor in their work.
Forced abortion in China
Chinese government economic policy has had disastrous
effects on the country's agricultural system, particularly
the major famines of the late 1950s. Population growth was
falsely blamed for these disasters and a notorious
population control programme was introduced.
From the late 1970s, parents were forbidden to have more
than one child. Chinese law refers to abortion "as required
by the family planning programme." There is abundant
evidence of forced abortion and sterilisation, yet the
Chinese government's population control programme has been
supported by assistance from the United Nations Population
Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation
since 1979. Britain and other western countries make
substantial grants of taxpayers' money to both of these
organisations.
The programme has led to a resurgence of female infanticide
which has caused an imbalance in the ratio between males and
females, which has, in turn, seriously affected fertility
rates. Female and disabled infants are left to die of
neglect in some estate-run orphanages.
The United Nations
United Nations conferences on:
* the environment
* food
* population
* social development
* the status of women
* urban settlements
have been platforms for attempts by wealthy nations to
impose abortion and population control on developing
countries. The rationale for this appears to be the
ideological commitment of the population control lobby and
economic self-interest on the part of Western governments.
National delegates opposed to abortion on demand and to
population control have had some success in amending
pro-abortion language in conference documents, which do not
have force of law but which are used to exert pressure on
developing countries which have signed them.
The attack on the young
The population control lobby is also promoting, through the
United Nations and national organisations, the provision of
abortion and birth control to adolescents, including those
under the age of consent to sexual intercourse, without
parental knowledge or consent. T he Brook Advisory
Centres, which pioneered abortion referrals for, and
contraceptive provision to, adolescents in Britain, began as
an offshoot of the Family Planning Association, one of the
founding member organisations of the International Planned
Parenthood Federation.
Young girls are particularly vulnerable to pressure to
undergo abortion. Officers of the Brook Advisory Centres
have on occasion acknowledged that the provision of birth
control to the young has aggravated the rise in underage
conceptions and abortions. Certain forms of sex education
which promote such practices also contribute greatly to the
problem. They should be replaced by approaches which respect
the dignity of young people, the rights and responsibilities
of parents and the inalienable right to life of the unborn
baby.
Disability and eugenics
The eugenics movement
The population control movement-and thus the organised
promotion of abortion-grew out of the eugenics movement of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eugenics is derived
from a Greek word meaning good birth. Professor Jacqueline
Kasun, the pro-life economist, has said that concern for
eugenics has fostered an attitude characterised as: "a view
of individual human beings-not as creatures of innate worth
and dignity, regardless of their earthly condition-but as
factors on a scale of social value." (The War Against
Population, Ignatius Press, 1988)
Eugenic principles are the reverse of the principle that all
human beings are of equal value, which is enshrined in
religious creeds, political philosophies and judicial
systems. The eugenic mentality judges others to be inferior
on grounds of race or on grounds of physical, mental or
social condition. This has led to attacks on the right to
life of those groups, especially those deemed racially
unfit, the disabled and the unborn.
Abortion and disability
All abortion involves an assumption that the lives of unborn
children are of less value than other human lives, and are
therefore expendable. Abortion of the disabled is not only
an attack on the most vulnerable and most in need of
protection, but it is also an affront to all members of the
community who are disabled. It sends them the message that
they are inferior to, and of less value than, the
able-bodied.
Attitudes to the disabled child in the womb, particularly
among the medical profession, show how the
abortion-mentality saps the will to cope with the
difficulties which the arrival of a child may bring. An
expectant mother faced with the news that her child may be
disabled is likely only to be guided towards abortion by her
medical advisers, with no other options presented.
Pre-natal screening
Pre-natal testing, which is routinely offered to most
expectant mothers in Britain, is a significant way in which
a large number of women come under pressure to have an
abortion. Such tests are typically offered with the sole
purpose of providing a reason to abort babies if they are
found to be disabled. The fears of many parents about having
a disabled child can only be worsened by the implicit
negative attitudes.
At least some types of pre-natal screening were not
developed with the intention of facilitating abortion.
Amniocentesis, a technique which involves testing cells from
a sample of the fluid around the baby in the womb, was
developed by Professor Sir A W Liley to diagnose babies at
risk of death from anaemia. In 1963 Liley became the first
physician successfully to perform a blood transfusion on a
child in the womb at 32 weeks' gestation. Amniocentesis is
not the most widely used test, but it is employed if other
types of testing indicate that the child may be disabled.
Sadly, amniocentesis is almost invariably used now to detect
disability with a view to aborting the child.
Screening with a view to abortion amounts to lethal
discrimination against the disabled in the womb. There is a
1% risk of amniocentesis' causing miscarriage and the
procedure can also injure the unborn child and thus cause
disability. Although pre-natal diagnosis is not always
wrong, it can only justified if the risks to the child of
the procedure are outweighed by the prospective benefits to
the baby.
In vitro fertilisation involves screening before
implantation, during which test-tube embryos are examined to
ascertain their sex and certain genetic conditions. Embryos
with a disabling condition or who are of the gender which is
associated with transmitting a disability can then be
discarded. This practice is incorrectly said to prevent
disability. It actually prevents embryos from continuing to
live.
Gene technology
Genetic science can be used to further the wellbeing of
mankind through, for example, research into gene therapy to
treat people with cystic fibrosis. However, this technology
can also be misused in order to manipulate human life.
Genetic engineering involves attempts to produce babies to
order, whose genes would have been manipulated in the
laboratory. These and other manipulations, such as human
cloning, deny the respect which is due to human beings. The
information from the genetic mapping undertaken in the human
genome project could be misused by, for example, an increase
in the number of the categories of babies to be killed by
eugenic abortion.
Foetal tissue in medical research
Babies killed by induced abortion are the principal source
of foetal tissue for research, and such research includes
the human genome project. The bodies of the dead may only
properly be used for research if consent is given, but a
mother aborting her baby cannot ethically provide such
consent. The use of foetal tissue in research appears to
justify abortion on the grounds that it contributes to
preserving the lives and health of others. Such research is,
however, quite unethical and immoral because it ignores the
unborn baby's right to life.
Infanticide and euthanasia
Legalised abortion has led to increasing contempt for
newborn babies who are disabled. Some doctors in Britain
have admitted killing disabled babies by methods including
sedating and starving them to death; this is still against
the law. In some countries, including Britain, courts have
approved the starvation of brain-damaged adult patients. The
same attitude to human life is apparent in eugenic abortion,
infanticide and the pressure to decriminalise euthanasia.
Source : Information taken from the spuc.org.uk web site