Christians who would protest against abortion may picket outside abortion clinics and hand out leaflets to the women considering having an abortion. They may offer advice to them and offer to help them cope with the baby when it is born and offer financial and emotional support. Or they may urge the mother to consider adoption so the baby’s life is saved and a childless couple could be happy.
Christians who are against abortion may support and send donations to organisations such as ‘Life’ or ‘Spuc’. If they are strongly against abortion they may choose to join one.
‘Spuc’, (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) is a anti-abortion/pro-life organization. The group was formed in 1967 when abortion was made legal. Spuc is not a Christian organisation, but many Christians do join it because it also protests against other moral issues such as euthanasia and embryo experimentation. They see abortion as the equivalent of murder and try to raise awareness and recognition of the unborn child. They do this by distributing leaflets about abortion door to door by volunteers. They also develop pro-life educational material for schools who are examining pro-life issues as part of their curriculum. They send free project packs to schools on request, and videos are up for hire or purchase at the nearest society. Spuc also sends speakers to schools, free of charge, to give speeches and slide presentations on the humanity and rights of the unborn child. They also have a national and local spokesperson who take part in debates, press coverage and broadcasted media. Also, they take part in peaceful protests, members holding signs and placards illustrating their views to passing people/traffic. Sometimes they picket outside abortion clinics and state their views there whilst questioning the staff and patients inside. Although the protests do get a little out of hand if there is a big opinion based argument
LIFE is also a pro-life organisation that has been running for over thirty years. Their aim is to support to men and women about pregnancy and abortion. They offer free pregnancy testing as well as counselling, and have over 120 care centres across the U.K. They also run a telephone help line 12 hours a day 7 days a week for queries or a in depth conversation. LIFE have 34 houses nationwide to accommodate pregnant young women or mothers with small children. There they can learn life skills and be supported long after the pregnancy.
LIFE are also affiliated to a charity called Zoë’s place, which is a hospice for babies with multiple disabilities and care for children up to the age of 5. LIFE also gives talks to students on the topic of abortion, along with others, such as: cloning, euthanasia and IVF. They take donations to help carry on running the houses and centres, doing this members may feel they are doing their bit to help stop abortion and help the young women and children.
LIFE also has a network of baby shops which can supply equipment such as bottles, sterilizers and cribs and baby clothes. There centres also supply equipment to anyone who may need their help. Also because they support some of the anti-abortion teachings written in part a.
Christians may choose to join/support pro-life groups if they are strongly against abortion and want to help.
There are also a lot of pro-choice organizations. They are not for abortion but think that a woman’s choice is her own and encourage them to make their own decisions. Pro-life and Pro-choice usually have a lot of arguments about the ethics and morals involving abortion.
One Pro-choice (pro-abortion) organization is IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation). They work in around 180 countries, and are open to any religion or race, providing and campaigning for sexual and reproductive health care and rights. They believe that reproductive and sexual rights should be recognized as human rights and encourage women to have their own control of their reproductive lives and to make their own choices. As with every pro-choice organization they face challenges from politics and pro-life groups. They have over 58,000 IPPF facilities worldwide that have approximately 32 million visits a year. There facilities have services such as abortion related services, counselling, gynaecological care and mother and child health.
One of their main aims is to lobby for the rights for women to access safe and legal abortion. They focus on increasing safe access to abortion services. Their clinics provide counselling and care for women who have suffered mentally and physically from abortion.
Another pro-choice group is The All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Choice Group (APPCG), which is part of the P.C.A, (pro-choice alliance). It is open to any religion or race. It was the first all-party pro-choice group in Parliament's history. Its purpose was to raise awareness in parliament of the needs of women seeking clean and healthy abortion in the UK. They believe the role of the doctor should be to help the patient come to her own decisions and then provide her with safe treatment, and not to decide whether she needs or deserves the abortion. They would like the outdated abortion act law (1967) so change so abortion is allowed on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The APPCG currently has a membership of 92 lords and commons from different political parties.
The P.C.A, which it is a member of was set up two years ago by abortion campaigning groups such as APPCG and MSI, who wanted the NHS abortion law to change. They have just published a leaflet explaining the details for the law changes. They will be sending this leaflet to MPs, members of the House of Lords, health authorities, community health councils and other people who are involved with the decision making.
Christians may choose to join these pro-choice groups because they help women in need. This could be showing agape or putting the teaching: “Help the weak”, into practice. Although it may be argued that “Help the weak” may be used in pro-life groups too.
Whether a Christian is for or against abortion, whatever they do is under the influence of love (agape) and forgiveness.