says the BBC.
Troublemaker. Stirrer. He’s going to go to a meeting and say exactly what everyone expects a Catholic cardinal to say. Can you believe that? Just when every decent person had finally come to an agreement about what the law on abortion should be.
Hat tip: Archduke.
UPDATE: It now says, “Cardinal urges abortion rethink.” Hat tip: me, and King Herod. Mirabile dictu, the timestamp has been changed as well.
Next week … “bears still have no proper bathrooms”
The Abortion Act came into force in 1967 since when there have been circa 7 million abortions. Each abortion has been signed off by a doctor as being ‘necessary to protect the life of the mother’ as is required by the Act. So it is clear that 7 million Britons have been consigned to the medical skip whilst our leaders say that we must keep importing millions of unassimilable migrants. Joined-up thinking?
So of course the headline now reads “Cardinal urges abortion rethink”. Stealth edit function’s working very well, as usual.
It reminds me of how disappointed everybody was when the new Pope proved to be catholic.
What we need is a pope licence. We all pay £130 a year and we get a pope who is infallible and is his own judge and jury on matters of balance and impartiality.
Actually it only costs me £5 a year in the Christmas Mass collection to get full access to the word of the Pope AND the Jesuits (Papal Shock Troops) – much cheaper than the BBC and so much more in tune with the common (normal) people.
allan -> in the book “freakonomics” , the introduction of abortion in America in 1973, caused the massive decline in crime, including homicide, in the 1990s. abortion actually saved lives.
it goes into it in some depth – and the idea was controversial.worth having a read of it, just for that chapter. a comment-post by me really wouldnt do it justice.
my own opinion is that abortion should remain legal, but that the amount of weeks should be drastically reduced.
aborting at 24 weeks is tantamount to murder in my view.
“So it is clear that 7 million Britons have been consigned to the medical skip”
those figures might could well include Irish abortions – since its illegal in Ireland, girls come over to the NHS over here to get it done.
and also remember that contraception was illegal in Ireland until the mid 1980s – which may well have boosted abortion rates in Britain.
I read Freakonomics yesterday and was quite disappointed. Yes it does show that the introduction of easier abortion did reduce the crime rate a generation on (a teenage generation I suppose) but little else in the book confronted any conventional wisdom that I was aware of.
The idea that a Catholic should oppose abortion and this becomes a “row” is farcical. Only to those who know nothing of religion, perhaps people who take their news from the BBC, would find this surprising.
One very sad statistic, a third of all women who attended my university had an abortion before they left.
yeah i agree – the rest of the book wasnt that great.
if you want a rollicking read on holiday, get Piers Morgan’s “the insider”
the incestuous relationship between tabloid editors and no.10 is eye popping.
despite Morgan’s anti-war stance, i really do recommend his book – Morgan’s relationship with BBC people is described (emails, drinking sessions etc), which really does make you wonder.
“One very sad statistic, a third of all women who attended my university had an abortion before they left.”
what an strange statistic (and quite sad too)- considering the easy availability of contraception.
was adoption ever put as an option to the women you mention?
Archduke
I am not sure it ever was offered.
I have an older sister, from both my parents, that I only found out about when I was in my late twenties, such was the pervasive culture in the sixties regarding children born outside of wedlock. Wonderfully she is now a very good friend of both my younger sister and me.
I am not sure which is better for all concerned but I am damned glad that my older sister is alive.
O/T: With blatant propaganda emerging daily from the BBC regarding America’s involvement in Iraq, the nature of the topics raised here recently by Biased-BBC authors seems simply pathetic. It’s clear now: socialism has finally won.
ken kautsky,
Depends what you mean by recent, I suppose. Go back ten days or so to find a post on the BBC and Iraq. There’s plenty discussion on Iraq on the open threads. On the latest open thread, where this discussion should be taking place, you’ll find a comment of mine on the BBC’s anti-American obsession:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/115079463623166444/#289126
You could lighten up a bit. It’s not all doom and gloom. Sometimes the BBC takes its bias to hilarious extremes.
And what has socialism got to do with this?
My opinion is that the words of the Abortion Act should be followed to the letter, and that abortion should only be permitted when the mother’s life is endangered (or the pregnancy resulted from rape). Doesn’t it show how the medical profession has been corrupted in the moral sense when doctors will authorise millions of abortions when there is no danger to the mother’s life? Bear in mind that millions of those terminations would now be paying tax and filling jobs had their prospects not been ended. There would be no need for ‘immigrants’.
allan -> yeah – but the law of unintended consequences would mean backstreet abortions, botched abortions , and dead mothers.
your immigrant link to abortion argument doesnt carry weight – especially when you consider that the *real* unemployment level is about 5 million , if you include people on “incapacity benefit”.
‘Back street abortions’, dead ‘mothers’. Firstly, how many were there? Secondly, doesn’t abortion imply strongly that ‘mother’ is an inappropriate noun for the carrier of the to-be-terminated baby?
Ken, we’ve written plenty of posts about all manner of subjects over the years, including Iraq and America.
The world does not revolve around Iraq, serious though the situation there is, or whatever happens to be bugging you on any given day.
If you don’t like our choice of posts (which we write in our free time, inspiration permitting), feel free to either make your own contributions here in the comments (and if they’re good enough we’ll happily make them into main posts) or take a complete refund of your subscription and go somewhere else – and spare us the crap about socialism having won.
Thank you.
Yes Allan and the trouble a doctor gets who refuses to refer a patient for abortion on conscience grounds but refers her to another doctor is not inconsiderable.
The Bill put forward by Steel was one Woy Jenkins at Home Secretary wanted. Contentious legislation is put forward by a Backbencher who then gets Govt support for time – that is how the Death Penalty Abolition, Homosexual Law Reform, Abortion, and Fox Hunting Ban were all put through…………..
– but the law of unintended consequences would mean backstreet abortions, botched abortions , and dead mothers.
Oh so it couldn’t mean Condoms, The Pill, the Coil, or any other form of Contraception. Some people just prefer the abortion clinic.
Marilyn Monroe had 7 abortions and was so scarred by them physically she lived with constant pain.
On July 20, 1962, she had her thirteenth abortion
I was too conservative I see
Surely the decision is down to the mother? Who has the right to force a woman to give birth to a child she doesn’t want?
I remember there was a 12 year old rape victim that had to come from Ireland to the UK to get an abortion. the Irish government actually tried to stop her.
I’m not doubting that decent sex education and easily available contraception are preferable to abortions, but women choose that have abortions for a reason. It isn’t just a ‘can’t be arsed with condoms’ approach to life.
Grimer why stop at 24 weeks – why not 36 months ?
One thing I do object to is having premature babies taking up ICU costs as doctors try to keep babies born at 22 weeks alive at one end of the hospital and abort them at 22 weeks at the other.
It should be illegal to take any action to save the life of any baby that comes within the scope of The Abortion Act. There should be no attempt to sustain the life of any premature baby born during the Abortion Window
Rick,
The time limit on abortion is a totally different issue, to whether abortion should be legal. The morning after pill is a type of abortion, but the mother doesn’t even know if she is or isn’t pregnant. Should that be illegal? At what stage do you set the limit? I think that should be up to the medical profession. If they advise the government that the time limit should be lowered, then so be it.
I know women that have had abortions. Some have been due to wreckless behaviour. Some have been due to genuine failure of contraception. People use contraceptives for a reason. Why should they be forced to have a child, when they have actively tried to prevent pregnancy?
Ultimately, the ‘right’ to abortion is abused by some women. However, I don’t see why all women should be forced to conform to another person’s morality.