Most of you know that the Supreme Court recently handed the pro-life cause an important victory by upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion. The Court may have banned only one method of abortion, but now we have hope that perhaps there will be additional legal restrictions on abortion in the future.
But we must remember that there are other fronts in the battle for human life besides the law. One front is the hearts and minds of those who would perform abortions: that is, doctors.
As the BBC recently reported, “The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there has been a big rise in the number of doctors who are ‘conscientious objectors.’” In other words, doctors in the
Analysts offer various explanations. Katherine Guthrie of the Royal College suggests, “You get no thanks for performing abortions. You get spat on. Who admits to friends at a dinner party that they are an abortionist?” But we have good reason to believe that the reasons go even deeper than that. James Gerrard, a general practitioner in Leeds, says, “Out of the six doctors in our practice, three of us object to abortion. I had made up my mind on abortion before entering the medical profession. I feel the foetus is a person and killing that foetus is wrong.”
So it’s not just about being ostracized. It is an “unprecedented moral revolt,” according to This Is London. Guthrie says, “The Department of Health is really worried.” Ann Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service explains why: “Within five to seven years, a woman’s ability to get an abortion will be more shaped by the service’s ability to provide them rather than the state of the law.”
Isn’t this remarkable? The very group that has the most to gain from abortions is turning away from them. They know better than anyone else exactly what an abortion is—and they want nothing to do with it. And because they are the ones most directly involved, they are having even more impact than the government could ever dream of having.
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