We can end the battle over abortion

This weekend marks the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, one of the most famous feats-of-arms by an English army.

King Henry V's army delivered a crippling defeat to a French army which vastly outnumbered them and which would go down in English folklore. Unlike the French king, Charles VI, Henry led his troops into battle himself and participated in hand-to-hand combat.

This victory started a new period of English dominance in the war and was immortalised by Shakespeare in his play 'Henry V'.

Henry V

In the final act of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the Duke of Burgundy addresses the peace negotiations between England and France thus:

    "Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace,
    Dear nurse of arts and joyful births,
    Should not in this best garden of the world
    Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
    Alas, she hath from France too long been chased,
    And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
    Corrupting in its own fertility."

The Duke was thus reminding the erstwhile enemies of the goodness lost to a country when thousands upon thousands of human lives are destroyed.

As well as the Battle of Agincourt, 2015 has marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the 200th anniversary of the end of the Napoleonic Wars, conflicts with much higher death-tolls and longer-lasting consequences than the Hundred Years War between England and France in the Middle Ages. It would seem that the human race has become more and more wasteful of human life in recent centuries.

50 years of legal abortion

Before long 2017 will be upon us and thus the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act. It is estimated that 9 million unborn children will have been killed under the Act by 2017. Sadly, the anniversary is bound to be marked by claims that the Act was a landmark for progress, health and women’s dignity.

However, ‘history is written by those who show up’, as Benjamin Disraeli, the Victorian prime minister, said. We don’t have to accept more dead babies, more damaged women, and more pro-abortion lies. We can end the battle over abortion. A great way to help do that is to support one of the pro-life vigils in your area, such as those organised by 40 Days for Life, the Good Counsel Network and other groups.

Sign our petition now to oppose the introduction of 'buffer zones', which would stop pavement counsellors at such vigils peacefully offering support and pro-life alternatives to women considering abortion.