In 1967 ‘The Abortion Act’ was passed, allowing abortion to be legalised in certain circumstances. If two doctors certify, that in their opinion, in good faith, the continuation of the pregnancy involves….
- Risk to the life of the woman
- Risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the woman
- Risk to the physical or mental health of existing children – greater than if the pregnancy was terminated
- There is a substantial risk of the child being born seriously handicapped
Other grounds are…
- In an emergency to save the life of the mother.
- In an emergency to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the women.
By introducing this law, women were made safer, because the number of ‘back street abortions’ went down as some women now managed to receive legal and safe abortions carried out by doctors in hospitals and clinics. The limit for all abortions for woman’s physical and mental health was 28 weeks. In 1990 the ‘Abortion Act 1967’ was amended by the ‘Human Fertilisation and Embryo Act’. For grounds 1, 2 and 3 a 24 weeks limite was introduced, because as technology had improved and babies born prematurely at this age could be save. A new ground for abortion is introduced of grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. This ground has no time limit and some abortions therefore may be performed up to birth. The ‘no time limit’ (abortion up to birth) was also extended to cover ground 4 (substantial risk of child being born seriously handicapped). The 1990 Act also legalises selective reduction of pregnancy, and opens the door to allow abortifacient drugs like RY486 (abortion pill),once given a product licence, to be administered from places other than an NHS hospital or an approved private abortive clinic. Still, the end decision of whether the abortion takes place is up to the two doctors (or by one in emergencies), not by the woman. Doctors decide whether each woman’s case fulfils the criterian set out by the terms of the Abortion Act, yet it is open to a wide range of interpretation by doctors, for example, when is the women’s mental health going to be at risk? Some doctors are anti-abortion and can deliberately mislead women, creating delays and problems. Some doctors will refuse to give permission and a woman has to try to find another doctor, by the time she may have passed the 24 week limit and it is too late to have an abortion.
When you become a nurse or doctor you take the hippocratic oath, which is to do everything within power to sustain life (and keep confidentiality). If the doctor believes life starts at conception and are asked to perform an abortion they are put in an awkward situation. Do they break the oath and do something they believe is wrong or refuse to do the abortion? This puts the doctor in a dilemma, and it may be hard for them to make a choice.
Over a third of women are forces to skip the NHS process and pay for private abortions, where it is guaranteed that they will see two sympathetic doctors within an hour, this costs about £250.
Some people say that abortion is wrong because it is murder. This can only be believed if you think that the foetus is a person. ‘When does life begin?’ is a debatable question, and different religions and people have different views on this. Some people say life starts at conception and some say to begin with the foetus is just a group of cells, and is not alive until a certain age of birth.
Christians believe in sanctity of life, that life is sacred and a gift from God and that we are made in the image of God. They believe all humans have a soil that is received at conception. Therefore the Church of England teach abortion is wrong because it denies the foetus the right to life, but there are certain extreme circumstances when the needs of the woman over-ride the rights of the foetus.
The Free Churchs (Baptist, Methodist and Evangelical) say abortion is a matter for the individual to decide. They believe abortion is a sensitive and complex matter.
The Roman Catholic Church is the only major world religion to rule that abortion is absolutely unacceptable in all circumstances (including the probably death of the woman).
As seen from the outline of some different religions there are lots of different views that contradict.
There are many pressure groups for and against abortion. A pressure group is a group of people who come together with like minds, and try to influence or put pressure on government to change the law. Pressure groups against abortion are ‘LIFE’ and ‘SPUC – Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children’. Pressure groups for abortion are ‘Woman’s Right to Choose’ and ‘NAC – National Abortion Campaign’. The NAC have the motto for women ‘our bodies, our lives, our right to decide’. They believe women should have the right to continue their pregnancy, or to terminate it. NAC believes each woman has the right to make the best decision for her, and at the end of the day she is the only person that can make that decision, no one else has the right to force the woman either way. The NAC would like to see the law changed so there is no legal or medical restrictions to the availability of abortion, and abortion can be given on demand.
SPUC – Society for Protection of Unborn Children say that from conception the foetus is an ‘unborn child’ that has every right to life. They want to reassert the principle laid down in the United Nations 1959 Declaration of Rights of the Child that the child ‘needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth’. The society’s aim is to defend and promote the existence and value of human life from the moment of conception. They would like to examine existing laws relating to abortion and support or oppose such as appropriate.
There are biblical references that Christians sometimes refer to when deciding whether abortion is acceptable……
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In Genesis 1:26-27 ‘The God said, “And now we will make human beings, they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over all the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and smal”. So God created human beings making them to be like himself’. This means that because God made us, we are special and made in image of God. Therefore, we have no right to destroy human life as God made it.
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Psalm 139:13 ‘You created every part of me; you put me together in my mothers womb’. This is saying God knew us from conception, he choose to create life. So if God wanted to create life, abortion is wrong because it is destroying it.
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Exodus 20:13 says ‘Do not commit murder’. If you believe life begins at conception then abortion is murder.
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I Corinthians 3:16-17 ‘Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you! So if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you yourselves are his temple’. So if you have an abortion you are killing part of God that is in the baby and are destroying God’s temple.
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JOB 1:21 ‘He said “I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The LORD gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised”.’ It is saying that only the Lord has the right to give and take life, not man.
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Psalm 99:3 ‘Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to Him’. So the baby belongs to God, not the woman. We do not have the right to abort a child because it is not ours to destroy.
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Isaish 49:50 ‘Can a mother forget the infant of her womb? Well it, even if she should forget, I will never forget you’ By referring to the embryo as an infant it implies the baby is alive, a child and life has begun.
Conclusion
Different people have different views on abortion, whether from their own personal reasons or stated by their religion. Some say abortion is wrong because it is destroying a life and is murdering an unborn child, or because it is destroying God’s temple and if God did not want to have that child he would not have let the woman become pregnant as God creates all life.
Some say abortion is acceptable for the woman to choose as she has to carry the baby for nine months. Other say there is no reason why abortion should be seen as wrong as the foetus is just a group of cells.
There are those that say abortion is acceptable only in certain circumstances such as if the baby is handicapped or the woman was raped.
There are so many different views on abortion from person to person and religion to religion. The subject of abortion arouses fierce debate, but for the time being abortion is legal under the certain circumstances in England, and thats a fact.