Posted on 05/05/2005 8:14:18 AM PDT by sionnsar
A chorus of outrage greeted Cormac Murphy O’Connor’s call to Catholics to ask parliamentary candidates about their views on abortion. The Archbishop of Canterbury entered the debate by stating his own anxieties about the present abortion law but he rejected the idea that the general election will be a ‘rerun of the US election of 2004 with a moral conservative panic dictating votes’.
Whether the remarks by Rowan Williams will quieten the worries of Magnus Linklater and others who believe that it is irresponsible to raise abortion as an election issue is open to question. According to the Times columnist, abortion takes us into ‘the alien territory of single-issue politics’ and exposes both candidates and voters to ‘threats and moral blackmail’.
More than six million foetuses have been legally aborted since the Abortion Act was passed in 1967. Last year there were 181,000 abortions performed in Britain. If the same number of people were being killed for other reasons, would Linklater think it ‘irresponsible’ to raise the issue? Linklater will deny that abortion involves the death of a human being. Unfortunately for pro-abortionists improved techniques for taking photographs of foetuses in the womb have shown them acting just like babies even when they are under 24 weeks of age. Medical advances have lowered the age at which prematurely babies can survive and there is a body of research showing the early age at which the foetus is able to feel pain. All these factors have added weight to pressure to reduce the 24-week limit for abortions. Even Lord Steel, sponsor of the 1967 measure that decriminalised abortion, now has doubts.
Ministers stick to the line that abortion should remain a ‘non-party’ issue. Harriet Harman, the solicitor general and a supporter of abortion, told the Sunday Telegraph that it is a matter for individual consciences and a free vote for MPs. It cannot be an issue in a general election. In making these comments, she was rebuking Michael Howard who favours reducing the age limit for abortions to 20 weeks and has announced that a Conservative government would allow time for such a measure.
A quick glance back at history is enough to show the hypocrisy of Harriet Harman’s position. Measures to decriminalise abortion or reduce the age limit have always been introduced as private member’s bills but whether or not they have been allowed time to proceed through the House of Commons has depended on the attitude of the government of the day. Acting behind the screen of allowing MPs to exercise freedom of conscience, governments have made the real decisions about abortion.
The bill to decriminalise abortion introduced by David Steel in 1967 did not pass the House of Commons because of mass demonstrations or overwhelming public pressure. It got through because the Abortion Law Reform Association, a small group with only 1,000 members, was able to form contacts and exert influence at Whitehall and persuade the Wilson government to allow the measure all the extra time it required. It was a classic example of a small, elitist lobby group made up of influential people using political networks to change the law. The government did not sponsor the legislation; it did not need to do so; all it had to do was to see that the measure was able to survive the lengthy Commons’ procedures.
In a similar way the government of the day used its influence to prevent the passage of a bill introduced by David Alton in 1987 to impose an 18-week limit on abortion. By this stage the Labour Party had already made defence of the 1967 Abortion Act party policy at its 1977 Conference (remember that, Ms Harman?) but the Conservatives were committed to not making abortion a party or government issue. Alton’s bill passed its second reading by 296 votes to 251 but it failed to become law because it ran out of time at the Report stage and the Thatcher government refused to provide extra time.
After 1967 such groups as LIFE and SPUC were formed to campaign against abortion. Their supporters were outraged by the combination of parliamentary manoeuvre and lack of government support that caused the Alton bill to fail. Despite occasional flights of rhetoric by Thatcher herself, the Conservatives when in government continued to insist that abortion was a matter for the private consciences of members and that they would not provide extra time for bills, knowing full well that the chances of any private member’s bill that is not given extra time making it through the Commons in the face of a determined opposition ready to exploit parliamentary procedures are very slim.
This historical background needs to be born in mind in evaluating protestations by such government ministers as Harriet Harman that abortion should remain a matter for the consciences of MPs. What is being demanded of any government is not that it should be prepared to introduce a measure itself but that it will allow time for a free vote to take place in all the stages required before a measure becomes law.
As class divisions become less significant in Britain, single-issue campaigns about matters on which people feel passionately are becoming common. Such campaigns still face obstacles stemming from tight party political discipline but the success achieved by the anti-hunting lobby shows that in certain circumstances they can succeed. Anti-abortionists should keep up the pressure.
–The Rt. Rev. Paul Richardson is Assistant Bishop of Newcastle; this article appeared in the Church of England Newspaper, March 2005
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Oops. One too many pluses on the name...
I just figured it meant he was a superbishop.
;-)
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