Don’t ban pro-life vigils

IT was with some concern that I read Ealing council is attempting to prevent pro-life vigils gathering outside abortion clinics.

I wonder if like me, this sends a chill down the spine for all those who value our freedom of speech.

Those who advocate the restrictions of pro-life vigils argue it is intended to prevent harassment of vulnerable women. Others will say that it is there to help women to access ‘health care.’

I have been a part of a pro-life vigil for many years and the claims of harassment and violence is something that I have never seen. Indeed, rather than any harassment and violence coming from the prolife movement it had tended to come from the other direction.

It is argued photographs of abortions are distressing. Of course they are DISTRESSING!

Abortion is a distressing thing. It is the wilful poisoning of a human. It is the wilful dismemberment of a human. That’s why it’s so sickening, that’s why the pro-choice groups want it hidden away. They sanitise the massacring of the innocents with euphemisms to hide their dark arts. Words such as termination, abortion, ‘health care’ providers won’t hide this away.

The abortion industry wants to remove any distressing images of abortion, any dissenting voices because they have a vested interest to ensure this death making business continues.

In the 2,000 years of her history, the Christian Church has been consistent in this plain and critical matter. The following statement illustrate this.

“Thou shalt not destroy thy conceptions before they are brought forth; nor kill them after they are born. Thou shalt love thy neighbour more than thy own life. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion.” Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas 14:11 (circa AD 125).

Has our society lost its ability to hear its inner conscience? We cannot allow the voice of dissent to be stifled. The Revd Fr Patrick Davies, St Crispin’s Church of England Church, Fallowfield