Mary T. Lavelle gives personal view on the 30th anniversary of the Abortion Act

IS the tide beginning to turn against the easy availability of abortion? Recent surveys seem to suggest this may be so.

A Gallup Poll commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph last week asked: "Should abortion only be allowed in certain circumstances?" 68% of women and 57% of men said yes.

When asked: "Should the present laws on abortion be altered to make abortion more difficult to obtain?" 47% of women and 34% of men said yes.

When asked: "Apart from abnormalities, should the upper limit remain at 24 weeks or change to 10 weeks?" 59% of women and 42% of men said it should be changed.

The Manchester Evening News conducted a telephone poll on October 27, asking: "Abortion - is it time to think again?" 82% of callers said yes.

After 30 years of legal abortion, common sense is telling us that that Act has not worked, it has opened the door to abortion on demand.

With Ultra Sound Scanning we can all see babies in the womb from the very earliest weeks, fully formed, completely human, performing all kinds of movements - thumb sucking, toe touching, and yet the pro-abortionists are still trying to deny these facts.

They use dehumanising terminology that allows them to blind even themselves to the fact that they are causing these babies to suffer an appalling death.

More and more medical evidence is being produced to show these babies feel the pain of an abortion and some doctors even go so far as to say that although the mechanics that allow pain to be felt are in place right from the earliest days, the natural pain suppressors are not.

Years ago it was rare for premature babies to survive, now survival rates are high. Babies have survived at 22 weeks and grown in to normal, healthy children, yet the upper age limit for abortion is 24 weeks and up to birth if handicapped.

Almost five million unborn babies have been killed by abortion since the Act of 1967. How can we possibly calculate the cost of such a legacy?

The cost to mothers of aborted babies is only just beginning to be acknowledged with depression, anger, self hatred remorse, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse.

These are some of the symptoms of post abortion syndrome and more and more cases are coming to light when these mothers say they regret their abortion and wish it hadn't been so easy to arrange.

Pregnancy causes vast changes in the body and these changes aren't automatically cancelled because the pregnancy has been terminated. Physically it takes time for the body to adjust, mentally and emotionally it can take a lifetime.

Mothers are naturally conditioned to care for their young and that is why abortion is so traumatic. Whether or not the trauma is recognised or acknowledged, there must be trauma when we are denying compassion to the most vulnerable and defenceless in our society.

In Northern Ireland where abortion is still illegal, maternal mortality and child death rates from violence (including terrorist activities) are still the lowest of any region in the UK.

Perhaps we should take more notice of such evidence and reinstate reverence and respect for human life at every stage, including the handicapped, the old and infirm.

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