By Alithea Williams

During this five- week election campaign, 20,930 babies will die by abortion. Today is day 13 of the campaign, and the toll is 7774.

These figures, based on the 2018 abortion statistics, bring home how we can never dismiss abortion as "not an election issue". This election may have been called because of Brexit, and whether we leave the EU and on what terms is definitely an important issue, but it is one we can only have a view on because we were not deprived of our right to life.

MPs in this next Parliament will be voting on a number of life issues, so it is vital that we elect as many pro-life MPs as possible.

What’s at stake?

One thing that is definitely going to come up is the new abortion regime in Northern Ireland. The Government is currently carrying out a public consultation on new regulations that will be introduced in March 2020 and whatever comes out of that will be voted on in Parliament. There needs to be a strong stand against this imposition of a horrific abortion regime without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.

The abortion lobby's success in decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland also make it very likely that there will be further attempts to do the same in the rest of the UK. Although the Domestic Abuse Bill fell with the calling of the General Election, both major parties are committed to it, and it is very likely to be reintroduced in some form. It is certain that pro-abortion MPs will continue their strategy of trying to hijack this important legislation in order to decriminalise abortion. Attempts could also come through other means, such as a private members bill.

Finally, there is a real danger that a private members bill could be brought forward on assisted suicide. Indeed, only the intervention of the election stopped Vince Cable MP doing just that. Mr Cable and Nick Boles (another big proponent of assisted suicide) both stood down at the election., The assisted suicide lobby's strategy seems to have switched from the courts back to Parliament, so it is only a matter of time before another bill is introduced.

What can I do?

One of the most important things we are asking our supporters to do is to find out the voting intentions of candidates in their constituency, to make sure as many pro-life MPs as possible are elected on 12 December.

Pro- votes are particularly important in marginal constituencies (where one party only has a small majority over another). We have drawn up a list of MPs standing for re-election in marginal seats who have voted either consistently with or consistently against the pro-life lobby in Parliament. (You can see how your MP voted in our How they voted booklet.)

If you live in one of these constituencies, a really concrete thing you can do to help the pro-life cause is to interview the other candidates in your constituency to find out which candidates will vote with the pro-life lobby in Parliament if elected. This information will help people in your constituency choose a candidate who will, if elected, vote to defend unborn babies and other vulnerable people in Parliament.

Many prominent anti-life MPs are not standing again in this election. This gives us a real opportunity to shape the make-up of the next Parliament and to elect MPs who will stand up for life.

Find out how to interview your candidates by downloading our election materials.