What do you get if .....

You combine the populations of Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chester, Derby, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Swansea.

or ....

multiply by five the number of UK casualties in the two World Wars?

......

Horrifyingly (is that a word?) - the number of babies aborted in the UK since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.

If you're not happy with that... - please think about signing the petition online here.

Some more stats from www.aliveandkicking.org:
The Tragic Loss of Life
UK law permits abortion of healthy babies up to 24 weeks. Babies suspected of having a disability can be aborted up to birth.
6,652,243 babies have lost their lives since the Abortion Act 1967. (1)
More than 10% of the entire UK population.
More than the combined populations of Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chester, Derby, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Swansea.
5 times the UK casualties in two World Wars
More than 200,000 babies are aborted in Britain each year.
Yearly abortion figures have tripled since 1967 and continue to rise.
More than 600 babies are aborted every day.
More than 3000 a year are killed after 20 weeks.
Disabled babies can be aborted up to birth.
475 babies were aborted in 2006 for having Downs Syndrome. (1)
1. Statistical Bulletin, Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2006 and Scottish Health Statistics, ISD Scotland.

Weekend

A good, if a little stressful weekend.
Friday evening started with steak and oysters and shopping for Saturday dinner in Waitrose. Steak was beautiful (rare for me, blue for T). Oysters were a new experience and although not unpleasant, not sure that I will be repeating soon (quite faffy to eat).
Saturday started with 10 hours sleep (bliss!) then bacon sandwich and into town to Westminster to join the rally to mark the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act. Quite disturbing to see how few people were there - only c.300. Given the number of big churches in London alone, there should have been many, many more. Need to think about how to raise profile amongst the people I know. It takes so little time to write to an MP, sign a petition etc.
Back from Westminster to the flat to start making cheesecake (see separate post for recipe) and T starting to prepare the lasagne. All going v.well until about half six when momentary lapse in concentration led to a nasty deep cut in a finger, a call to my sister which determined that I did need to take T to A+E. We diverted dinner guests to a nearby pub, as they hadn't yet arrived. A+E was actually very good: they
have a minor injuries unit, so only took an hour to sort T's finger out and then we were back home by half eight to welcome guests and enjoy the rest of the evening.
Sunday - up on time for church and for breakfast before church, but then decided to skip the morning service as T not feeling well, so back home for copious cups of tea, and regular doses of food (made chorizo in red wine, roast peppers and roast squash for lunch) and sleep. Then into church for evening service (I got to play with the bookstall - hurrah), back to T's for pizza, then home.

Abortion - Times article

Brutal truth of DIY abortion - India Knight in the Times

40 years since the 1967 Abortion Act

40 years since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.

The Human Tissues and Embryos Bill is expected to come before Parliament later in 2007 and appears to propose a very worrying extension to the current arrangements for IVF/cloning etc.

Excerpts from the EN article:

"On Saturday, October 27 (the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act), there will be a rally in Parliament Square, London, at 2pm, followed by a march through London and an ecumenical service of remembrance, repentance and healing at Westminster Cathedral, with a video link to the piazza outside.
....
No less than 6.6 million babies — a tenth of the present population of the UK — have died from abortion since 1967. Now there’s going to be another opportunity to vote on the issue. It’s important that the Christian church isn’t asleep this time."

Let me know if you would like to come with me.

Abortions 'crisis' threatens the NHS

I was initially cheered when I read this article on BBC News which notes that there has been a big rise in the number of 'conscientious objectors' among doctors in the NHS.
Then follows the usual round of quotes from usual contributors on the topic, before quotes become increasingly bizarre towards the end - namely

"We have always had conscientious objectors, but more doctors now are just wanting to something different and don't see abortion care as attractive."

Well, no. I can imagine that abortion care is not particularly attractive. (?!?)

"It is increasingly difficult to recruit doctors to abortion services.
"It is the case, that 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."

Surely this starts to lead doctors down the road of being compelled to provide abortions, rather than allowing it to be a matter of personal conscience? (I was about to refer to the Hippocratic Oath as I recalled vaguely that this spoke of doing no harm... only to wikipedia it and find that abortion is specifically mentioned as something which those swearing the oath may not perform ... Feeble - sure you can pick this up on your blog please)

Anyway - blood pressure nicely rising - this was all capped by the helpful quote from the DH that:

"stable" number of abortions was being performed each year, and that the number of terminations performed before the 10th week of pregnancy had increased from 51% in 2002 to 64%.

Well. That's OK then.