Westminster Commissioning Abortion Services in Northern Ireland; Comment for the Tyrone Courier

As a Christian minister I hear about the plans to commission abortion services in Northern Ireland with horror and incredible sadness.

I believe the proposal to decriminalise abortion should have been considered by our representatives within the Northern Ireland Assembly, health being a devolved matter.  Likewise the intended commissioning of these services should be a matter solely for the devolved administration.  The Northern Ireland Executive’s division on this matter reflects the divisions within Northern Ireland society on this profound issue.  

The politicians from within the Northern Ireland Assembly and at Westminster who advocate abortion wilfully ignore the hundreds of thousands within this part of the UK who object, as the consultative process last year demonstrated.

I object to abortion and the intention to commission abortion services in Northern Ireland most vociferously.

My grounds for objection is based upon the humanity which the foetus has inherited from conception; a humanity which the unborn shares with those who have been born.  If killing of children after birth is a crime, then killing prior to birth is also a crime.  Biblically and morally there is no distinction between the humanity of a foetus and a new born baby apart from the fact that the foetus is enclosed and nurtured within the safety of the mother’s womb.

Abortion is often packaged as a being a health care matter for women.  From the moment a woman becomes pregnant she becomes a mother.  Therefore it is not in the interests of a woman’s health for her to abort her baby.  There are psychological and moral implications when a mother chooses to terminate her pregnancy. 

Abortion is described as pro-choice…that a woman has the right to decide what happens to her own body.  This is a red herring.  Do any of us have the right to mutilate our own bodies?  It would be entirely unethical for the NHS or a private health practice to assist us in self harm.  Therefore no-one has the right to do what they please with their bodies if it is harmful or injurious.  On this logic it is equally wrong to choose to deprive the growing infant within the womb, of the most sacred of all rights - the right to life.  I often reflect upon the enormous loss to society…the thousands and millions of people deprived of life with talents and energy and commitment which they could have offered to all of us.  But abortion has tragically and cruelly robbed both them and us.  

I call upon all our politicians with pro-life convictions to bring a motion before the Northern Ireland Assembly to prohibit abortion.  If the motion is lost then I appeal to them to continually bring this matter before the legislature as often as the procedures allow.  This is the greatest moral crusade of our generation.  Where a past generation was defined by opposition to slavery this generation must be defined by a campaign to give our children not yet born the freedom to live and to be protected within the womb.  

Among David Livingstone’s last writings, recorded on his tomb in Westminster Abbey is the description of Africa, on account of the slave trade, as being “the open sore of the world”.  He longed for the healing of the open sore and we are grateful to be living in an age when society is slowly being healed of the curse of racism.  

But discrimination against children in the womb continues.  Abortion is the open sore of the world in this 21st Century.  Our lawmakers have turned our proud and noble NHS into a killing factory with the implementation of abortion.  Society is horrified when children are murdered, trafficked and abused yet we are numb to the plight of the babies in the womb when the pregnancy is ‘terminated’.  The world continues to be traumatised by the Nazi death camps as those deemed weak and unfit for life were exposed to the ‘final solution’, yet we turned a blind eye and many chose to justify the slaughter of the innocent known as abortion.  

I have the greatest of sympathy for women who feel that this is their only option.  It is our lawmakers, our medical ethics and the attitude of millions in society which have made this tragic choice possible.  Abortion is a societal issue and as a society we share in the collective guilt.  But to those women whose circumstances are bringing them to the place where they feel this tragic choice must be made I say - STOP…there are other options…there is help and support…there is a positive, loving and caring alternative BUT abortion is not the solution…not for you and not for your baby.  

To those who are living with this tragic choice feeling and experiencing the guilt - I bring a message of comfort.  Bring your confession to God, He is forgiving, He will hear you and bring peace to your troubled soul.

I pray for God’s mercy and for an end to this cruel practice.

Peter McIntyre

23rd March 2021

DEPRAVED CONTRADICTIONS

 THE DEPRAVED CONTRADICTIONS 

OF 21ST CENTURY SOCIETY

There is no section of our society more vulnerable, yet more precious than our children.   Christ Himself prized highly the little ones, telling the disciples that they must be allowed to come to Him and condemning those who harmed the children with the strongest of words.

Last week television presenter, Lorraine Kelly, was a part of an excellent ITV production which looked back at the Dunblane massacre, twenty-five years ago, when almost an entire class of primary one children and their teacher were gunned down by a lone psychopath.  In this tearful encounter with the parents of these children the event was called the slaughter of the innocent.

Society quite rightly wrings its hands in despair at such barbarity while at the same time promoting and defending the depravity which will cause untold harm to our children and young people.  Herein lies the wicked contradictions of this generation.

Last week a report commissioned by the Department of Communities looking at a gender equalities strategy for Northern Ireland was published.  This department which is led by Sinn Fein Minister Deirdre Hargey received the report from the advisory panel made up of “experts” in the field.   

The report made some recommendations which I find most disturbing.  It concluded that sex education in Northern Ireland was insufficient because it was not inclusive of the experiences of all young people.  In a manner of speaking the report is recommending that LGBT experiences are included as part of the school curriculum, as well as abortion.  The panel recommended that the delivery of these proposals should not be dependent on the ethos of the school and to achieve this the teaching should be conducted by an outside body and not by the local teachers.  Therefore the principals and local governors would be disregarded and presumably the wishes of parents as well.

In a statement the DUP pointed out that the delivery of education in this way would need to be approved by the Department of Education and by the Northern Ireland Executive.  This certainly appears to be over reach by the Department of Communities and we are grateful that there are those in Government who will oppose these moves but it is troubling that there  are some who want to push such an extreme agenda of perversion and legalised murder onto the most vulnerable in our society.  

There seems to be no end to the liberal juggernaut and its depraved ambition to control and manipulate every part of our lives and to mould the thinking of our children.

Of those who would would dare to promote such a programme aimed at distorting young minds the words of Christ are as true as they were for the Dunblane gunman:

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."  (Matthew 18:6)

As a church and as parents we must be vigilant and pray much that the Lord would shelter our little ones.  

The most cruel contradiction of all, however, is the murderous act of abortion itself. Already more than 1,000 little babies have been slaughtered in Northern Ireland since the introduction of abortion less than one year ago.  People weep because of the deaths of sixteen primary one children in Dunblane twenty five years ago, plus their teacher who died trying to protect her “wee” class, but are completely without emotion when the law murders children who have a right to life, in the very place God designed for their nurture and safety.  Abortion in the western world, has strange depraved echoes of the Nazi death camps and gas chambers and it fills me with horror.  If there is one sin that will bring God’s wrath upon this United Kingdom, it is the slaughter of the innocent, approved by Parliament, consented to by our Queen and funded by our NHS.  

I am grateful that there is a push back against abortion in the Northern Ireland Assembly led by Paul Givan  MLA.  His Private Members Bill is designed to give disabled children in the womb the same rights as disabled people outside the womb.  If passed abortion will be illegal up to term on the basis of disability.  Our lives are greatly enriched by the disabled children who are blessed with the opportunity to live and contribute to the well being of society.  Nazism saw the disabled as a hindrance and sent them to their deaths with millions of others.  While we want to see abortion abolished all together, if Mr Givan can see his Bill through the Northern Ireland Assembly to Royal Assent, it will provide a platform for arguing against all abortion in totality.  If disabled children have a legal right to protection why not all children?

In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder in London, there has been a huge outpouring of grief, together with a highlighting  of the threats that many women face when walking alone. We rightly defend the rights of our ladies to feel safe and we share in the grief and thoughts that have been expressed.  

But we also must point out the cruel contradiction - we wish to defend the innocent against attack and murder while the same time millions of innocent babies have been robbed of life and little revulsion is expressed.  

While men are responsible for violence against women, which we rightly abhor, it is women who make the choice to have their unborn babies “terminated”.  Men, however, are responsible too , having fathered the children, and in many cases refusing to take responsibility for them, therefore persuading mothers that they have little option.  Depravity crosses the gender barrier and encompasses people of all generations and ethnic backgrounds reminding us that “all have sinned”.  Yet we must be sympathetic at the plight that some of these women find themselves in and accept that the moral and legal structures of society make it possible for them to make this tragic choice.  This is absolutely a society wide problem which we collectively must take ownership of.  We must stand up and say - Abortion is not the solution.

These cruel contradictions are symptomatic of a society sickened by selfish and heartless brutality. They illustrate most graphically the brokenness of a people who have ignored God and risks being abandoned by Him.

As a church we must must face the challenge biblically and prayerfully for the sake of the next generation.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” ( 2nd Chronicles 7:14).