On Monday night we hit the motorway (freeway) and arrived in a little church hall/church in Tamworth where we never normally would have frequented. Hosted by 'Vic' ( the Vicar):
The meeting: organized by SPUC locally and presented by Mr Doyle (no relation);
National Director Mr J Smeaton (
His blog here) explained pro-life issues and the fight against abortion over the last few decades, always flatteringly over-optimistic about the audience's youth! But most worrying, John says, the worst anti-life project of recent months and years: the aggressively secularist teaching of sex to innocent school children, and the obligation not to inform the guardians when serious issues (eg pregnancy) arise.
It was a successful evening with over forty people in attendance from Tamworth and further afield. The talk was faith inspired but not religiously loaded, acknowledging our common belief in the sanctity of human life. It did not stray far into the Catholic teaching against contraception, but always asserted the life of the embryo and it's personhood and dignity from the moment of conception.
Of interest was seeing the beautiful little models which were sent to members of parliament before an important vote. These models were 1:1 scale medical replicas of a 20-week baby in utero, complete with half a uterus. It looked beautiful to us, but was at the time described horrifically by politicians, even accusing SPUC of cruelty against a lady recently having miscarried, who was upset at the contents of her package.
I think that is the point: rather than ignoring this female emotion; to acknowledge the grief at losing a tiny baby. This must be the same grief that a woman feels post abortion, but who have to suppress it because they knew it was their choice.
John compared this revelry from MPs as similar (certainly almost identical in verbiage) to mid 19th century British reaction to sketches of young children manually working in the pits. How is this not worse?!
There is new impetus in Tamworth encouraged by a youthful vision in the Smeaton Family: "Abortion will fall; be repealed." Like the slave-trade, it will be seen as a black day in history.
