A scandalous overreaction

It is obvious why sonic pro-life campaigners choose to circulate horrific images of mutilated foetuses. Photographs showing the odious reality of abortion are a powerful antidote to the slippery, eugenic language employed by the medical establishment. The pro-abortion "woman's reproductive right" argument sounds wicked set against the sight of a tiny human life murdered.
There are, however, good arguments against the use of such shocking pictures. Not least, there is a hint of fanaticism about it, which feeds the popular myth that abortion opponents are mad, bad and inclined to violence.
Yet whatever the wrongs of aggressive campaigning, they are a pinprick compared to the foul injustice committed against Edward Atkinson, the Catholic pensioner and pro-life activist imprisoned and denied a hip replacement because he sent pictures of the aborted unborn to his local hospital. This is a truly alarming development. The decision to put him behind bars is at best a ridiculous overreaction; the refusal to give him medical treatment is an abuse of his rights as a British citizen. Mr Atkinson is thought to be the first person in this country to be jailed for opposing abortion. If the pro-life movement does not protest vigorously against his incarceration, he may not be the last.