Lay off it BBC – young Brits are not turning pro-life ‘because of America’
A recent BBC InDepth article claimed that US groups are driving ‘anti-abortion activism’ in the UK.
It noted a rise in young people in the UK campaigning for the unborn, a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon for which “there’s no single, clear cause” — though, as far as the BBC is concerned, American influence is the key factor.
The likes of Charlie Kirk and others garnered huge followings on social media for their logical and reasoned approaches to opposing abortion, and this must be the cause of the upsurge in pro-life campaigning.
It’s a classic ad hominem argument: If you don’t like the points someone is making, try to tarnish their reputation by attacking their character or motives instead. In this case, it’s clearly those dastardly Americans who are trying to impose their own outdated views on the British, like some form of ideological colonisation.
Granted, US television and social media have played no small part in reshaping British culture and language, but to suggest pro-life Brits are incapable of coming to their own conclusions on one of the greatest moral injustices of our time is both reductionist and insulting.
Radical laws
Here’s an alternative take: Our young people have minds of their own, and UK abortion law is so radical it’s getting harder and harder for even those who are ardently pro-choice to support.
Our abortion law is one of the most ‘progressive’ in the world. Unborn babies can be aborted up to birth if they have a disability – even for something as fixable as a cleft-lip.
The abortion limit for the healthy unborn is 24 weeks. Decades ago, this was believed to be the earliest point a baby could possibly survive outside the womb, but with the advancement of modern medicine, the idea of viability has changed. There are now countless stories of babies born at 22 and 23 weeks who survive and thrive, and there are even tales of babies born as early as 21 weeks who do the same.
So what we have had for many years is an abortion limit that both exceeds the point of viability, and allows for babies deemed to have a disability (which does not have to be confirmed) to be aborted up to birth.
And as of this year, changes made in the Crime and Policing Act have removed any criminal sanction for a mother killing her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy.
It doesn’t even take a belief in the sanctity of life from conception for people to feel deeply uneasy with the status quo.
Pro-life heritage
There are many brilliant UK-based organisations who have been speaking out for the sanctity of life of the most vulnerable in our society, the unborn, for decades.
The Christian Institute, funded by our supporters in the UK — generous Christians concerned for there to be a strong Christian voice speaking into today’s culture and society — has long campaigned against abortion.
Our motivation is nothing to do with US activists and celebrities, but the conviction that unborn babies are humans, made in the image of God. These people are deserving of protection and dignity, even while they are still being formed in the womb.
The pro-life movement in the UK has a voice all of its own, and we can thank God it is growing. And we can thank God for our brothers and sisters in America who are doing his work too.