Jennie Pollock on abortion and adoption

Jennie Pollock

Have you seen the images they can print out for parents from ultrasound scans these days? They're incredible! No more peering at a blurry grey blob and pretending you know what it is; nowadays they really look like babies.

Many of us thought - hoped - that such images would deal abortion a serious blow. Technology has made it all-but-impossible to claim that the thing in the womb is 'just a cluster of cells'. Surely people would balk at killing what is so clearly a human, other than in the most extreme circumstances? Yet, this has not been the case.

Columnist Mary Elizabeth Williams writes that despite her 'conviction that the fetus is indeed a life', that doesn't for a moment dent her support for 'unrestricted reproductive freedom'. She firmly believes that life begins at conception, but that it is, unquestionably, 'a life worth sacrificing'.

The 27th October marked the 47th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act. It was originally intended to help a few mothers in desperate circumstances get help safely, yet last year abortions were performed at an average rate of over 500 per day in England and Wales. For many of us, this breaks our hearts and drives us to our knees. We can't help but be filled with compassion not only for the babies, but for the mothers and fathers who feel they have no other choice, for those whose lives are ripped apart physically and emotionally.

Last weekend, less than a week after the anniversary of the Abortion Act, was Adoption Sunday. What better picture of the gospel message could there be than that? In place of death, we have been offered adoption. Where once all looked hopeless, we have now been brought into God's family.

A growing number of families have chosen to embed this reality in their lives by fostering or adopting children, some of whom escaped abortion only to be born into situations of abuse, neglect or deprivation. It is hard work. It will involve sacrifice. But, as Mary Elizabeth Williams has pointed out, it already does.

This week is the National Adoption Week and it provides an opportunity for us to thank Jesus for his loving sacrifice on our behalf, pray for those who in turn serve others at enormous cost to themselves, and pause to reflect how we might continue to offer our own selves as a living sacrifice.

This article was first published by LICC and is used with permission.