Pro-lifers vow to fight new `liberal' abortion regulations

by Paul Goodman AS new abortion regulations came into effect earlier this week, pro-life campaigners stepped up their opposition to what are widely regarded as liberalising changes in the law.
In a spring message to the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children's trade union members, John Smeaton, SPUC's general secretary, emphasised the power of prolife arguments.
"The pro-abortion lobby," he said, "knows something . . the power of our arguments, the power of the truth, is so strong that the pro-abortionists need to continue tearing up our leaflets, intimidating our delegates, and stopping us speaking if' they are to prevent us from winning our campaign for justice for the unborn within the trades unions and the Labour party."
Mr Smeaton also urged prolife trade unionists to understand the regulations that govern trade unions. "By taking one step at a time," he said, "and applying SPUC's ABC's to learn about your union, its position on abortion, how decisions are reached, and what is being said in your journal, you will find out how you can make your voice heard and how you can influence decisions."
In this context, he referred approvingly to the election of pro-lifer Peter Hunter to the NALGO National Executive. "He was kicked, scratched, and howled down — but he won the all-important backing of NALGO's grass-roots membership in the north west."
SPUC also issued this week a booklet entitled Rerum novarum — a magna carte for Christian action written by Andy McKeown. Marking the centenary of the proclamation of the encyclical, the pamphlet argues that "the state has tried to solve the problem of unwanted children by advocating, supporting, and encouraging artificial birth control and abortion."
Commenting on the new abortion legislation, which came into effect on April 1, Keith Davies, Life's campaign coordinator, said: "the new regulations herald a new era of discrimination against unborn children. The new legislation will allow some unborn children to be killed up to the time of birth, and it opens the door for new forms of chemical warfare against selected pre-born humans in the womb, together with total war against disabled children."
He added that to include drugs in abortion notification forms that can only be used with the as yet unlicensed RU486 abortion pill pre-empts and undermines the outcome of the licence application.
The regulations have been put into effect as a result of the changes to the abortion laws approved by Parliament last year.