It’s all about Choice.
It’s become essential these days; the right to choose.
From the supermarket shelf - which soup? Heinz tomato? Cross and Blackwell leek and stilton, Baxter’s beef consomme or Campbell’s chunky chicken noodle? (I could go on and on).
Or which school for my child (even if it means ten car journeys a week and constant arguments about parking)?
Or a weekend in Tenerife or Ibiza (regardless of the cost to our credit card or the planet)?
But suddenly life has changed. We don’t have the right to choose to do as we please, when we please. Now we are instructed to stay at home and avoid contact with other people. Lockdown!
When I found myself in my mid-thirties expecting my third child my doctor casually offered me an abortion. I stared at him in horror?
“Why?”
“Because you hadn’t planned it and you’re not as young as you were.”
The UK Health Centre provides the latest facts and statistics about abortion.
One of the most far-reaching choices made by 200,000 women in the UK last year was to end their unwanted pregnancy.
Let’s press the pause button a moment. What does this look like?
Abortion up to ten weeks, could mean taking a first pill to break down the lining of the uterus and thus terminate the pregnancy then a second pill to ‘expel the embryo’. Or you can have a surgical procedure when a doctor pulls the baby out of the womb with forceps and suction.
Only 1% of these abortions took place because of likely disability. 90% took place before the baby was 13 weeks old. (And abortions are available on the NHS until 24 weeks).
So what do we know about unborn babies?
At seven weeks a baby sucks her thumb.
At eleven weeks the tiny hands have fingernails.
At eighteen weeks she can cry.
At twenty weeks she has hair on its head and is about 12 inches/ 30 cm long.
At twenty-four weeks 56% of babies can survive if born prematurely.
On 25th March this year, a report was issued In Northern Ireland Office about their planned new Abortion Regulations, asking for there to be more ready availability right up to 24 weeks if there is a risk of physical or mental health for the woman.
We are told, ‘A woman’s right to choose is imperative,’
But don’t babies have rights too?
The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) launched a pro-life Prayer Chain on 15th April. SPUC’s Antonia Tully invites us to join a nationwide day of Prayer on Monday 27th April.
David Noakes who is part of the Prophecy Today UK team established by Clifford Hill in 1984, delivered ‘The Day of Decision’ on 3rd April this year. You can find it here and I invite you to weigh and ponder it. I believe it gives an insight into the grieving heart of God. Here are a few words from it.
‘Everywhere I see violence and corruption, greed and the shedding of innocent blood- millions of unborn children who are the work of My hands and for whose lives I had a purpose on this earth.’
It’s all about choice. For them. For us. We too can choose to walk by on the other side…
2 Chronicles 7:14-15. ‘If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, THEN shall I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’
Retired Angie Jones writes for local magazines in East Anglia and her book, Walks in the Slow Lanes of Suffolk is available on Amazon and Sigma Press.
Photo by Matt Hoffman on Unsplash
