For this next instalment of the series where we hear from SPUC members across the UK, we have John from the SPUC Nottingham branch.
John is married and has 5 grown up children. Before retirement, he was a history teacher in secondary schools. At the end of his career he was principal of a Church of England academy in Nottingham.
John writes:
As a Catholic, I have always accepted the teaching of the church, that abortion involves killing an innocent human being. This teaching makes sense to me on a spiritual level, but also on a scientific level. The more we learn about fetal development, the more we realise just how stunningly beautiful (and complex) the process of procreation is.
I met a nurse a few years back from a local hospital. She told me how she was working on a ward in which there were three women in beds next to each other. One had had a miscarriage and lost her baby. She was devastated. In the next bed was a woman who was having a late term abortion. In another bed was a woman whose baby had been born prematurely and the hospital was fighting to keep her baby alive. The babies were all about the same age. The nurse I spoke to said she thought it was ‘disgusting’. As a society, we seem to be in denial, pretending that there is no contradiction between these hugely different attitudes towards the unborn child.
Attitudes towards disability are also contradictory. I have many friends with a learning disability. They have happy and fulfilling lives and are much loved. It saddens me that our society is trying to eliminate such people. This is a form of eugenics which, in other contexts, people would say they strongly oppose. But in the case of people with disabilities, it seems to be okay.
In recent years, I have read about and listened to women who have had abortions and were really hurt by it. They believed the lie, that it wasn’t a baby, and that abortion would solve their problems. In fact, it doesn’t – it just causes them great pain, sadness and regret.
My final reason for being prolife is that I hate bullying. When you work in schools, you see how cruel children can be to each other, and for me bullying is anathema. Abortion is, in a sense, a form of bullying; it is picking on someone who is smaller and more vulnerable, and who cannot speak for him or herself. This offends against my sense of fairness, or justice. So, I would summarise my reasons for being prolife by saying that it is a matter of social justice.
Although these are strong reasons for being pro-life, which I have known about for a long time, I haven’t always been active in the pro-life cause. When I was at university, I went on a huge demonstration against the Abortion Act in Hyde Park. There were many thousands in the crowd that day, and it was good to feel part of something so big. But over the years, opposition to abortion has diminished. Now, it is deeply unfashionable to support the pro-life cause. My opinions on this matter never changed. If abortion involved killing another human being in 1967, it still does today. But it’s harder and harder to express this view, in a society where the dominant view is pro-abortion or ‘pro-choice’.
Maybe I was afraid of getting involved, as I knew that if I did my commitment would grow. But it was only when we came to live in Nottingham, and I met someone who was in the local branch of SPUC, that I decided I would actually do something by going to SPUC meetings. At first, I wasn’t sure whether I would have anything to offer. I’m not a natural activist type; I don’t like offending people or disagreeing with them. But once I had been to a few meetings, I realised that any involvement is better than none. And I have made many very good friends as a result of my involvement and met many good people.
What would you say to someone who is considering joining / starting an SPUC branch?
It’s the same thing that I have said to my own children, as well as generations of school pupils: if you don’t know what something will be like, try it and see. Join a branch near you. You’ll meet good people, who will be delighted to have your support and involvement in whatever way you can manage.
When I contemplate the brokenness of the world, and the huge misery of abortion, I’m often tempted to think that the situation is hopeless. So many people believe in abortion, seeing it as a ‘good thing’; that killing an unborn child is empowering for women. Such attitudes are so shocking that it’s tempting to despair and give in. I can’t change the world!
But then, I have found that if I do something - read a pro-life article, write a letter, send some money to SPUC, buy and help to sell SPUC Christmas cards, take part in a silent witness… I feel less despairing. As a wise Christian pastor once said, ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’