It was, of course, a great relief that well-organised, intelligent, pro-life lobbying resulted in the danger of pro-abortion amendments to the Abortion Act being averted for the time being.However, yesterday's Independent reports that Tory frontbenchers are calling for a "thorough discussion of the 1967 Abortion Act, including proposals to cut the 24-week time limit as well as proposals to liberalise the law".
In other words, Conservative front-benchers are promising to do precisely what a wide range of pro-life groups have been campaigning against in recent months; and what SPUC has been warning about for years - a parliamentary debate on the upper limit for abortion in exchange for widening the law so that many more babies will be killed and women damaged by abortion.
It's not my intention to single out the Conservatives. The anti-life laws and policies put in place by Parliament at the behest of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are costing the lives of countless unborn children, both in Britain and overseas, and countless vulnerable people through euthanasia by neglect.
But before anyone starts to imagine that it will be different under the Conservatives - bear in mind the promises being made by Tory front-benchers, above, and the following facts:
On Wednesday's final vote on the HFE bill as a whole, which legalised all manner of abuses of the human embryo, about a quarter of Tory MPs voted for the bill, including:
With the anti-life votes of MPs of other parties, there would be a big majority for widening the abortion law, just as there was when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in 1990 - when Parliament voted for abortion up to birth.- David Cameron (pictured), leader of the opposition;
- George Osborne, shadow chancellor, and four shadow secretaries of state, including Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary;
- 12 other Conservative frontbenchers, including a shadow health minister (Mark Simmonds);
- the Conservative party deputy chairman (John Maples), plus two Conservative party vice-chairmen (Justine Greening and Grant Shapps);
- other senior Conservative officials, including the chairman of the Conservative policy review (Oliver Letwin).
SPUC is non-party-political. We urge the public to check how their parliamentary candidates will vote on life issues - abortion, euthanasia, embryo research etc - regardless of their political party.
Let's stick to seeking to elect pro-life MPs, regardless of political party, and lobbying those MPs, regardless of their position on pro-life issues, once elected.
