Gender Abortion Case
In December pro-life campaigner Aisling Hubert applied to the High Court in London for a Judicial Review against the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). She contended that the decision not to prosecute two doctors who appeared to have broken the 1967 Abortion Act was unlawful and “politically motivated”. However, sadly, the two judges considering the case, Lord Justice Burnett and Mr Justice Irwin, have refused to grant the Review.
The case stretches back to 2012, when the Daily Telegraph carried out covert investigations into abortion clinics in Manchester and Birmingham, using undercover reporters. Two doctors were secretly filmed offering abortions to “mothers” requesting terminations solely based on the sex of their unborn child. One woman said she wanted the abortion because her baby was a girl, but the doctor documented the “official” reason as being “she was too young”. The Telegraph decided to carry out the investigation of sex selection after concerns were voiced by doctors, academics and pro-life campaigners studying the gender-ratio statistics. There were indications that
there was “indirect quantitative evidence of prenatal sex selection against females performed by a minority of Indian women born in England and Wales”.
Police investigated the two female doctors involved and referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider possible criminal charges. However, the CPS refused to proceed with a prosecution claiming that the abortion guidance for doctors is not clear enough. Its conclusion was: “The discretion afforded to a doctor in assessing the risk to the mental and physical health of a patient wanting an abortion is wide”.
After consulting legal and medical professionals over the DPP’s failure to prosecute, Miss Hubert decided to bring a private prosecution against the doctors concerned, using video evidence already in the public domain. She claimed that “a clear criminal offence has been committed here and is being brushed under the carpet. The law is clear: sex selection is not a ground for abortion”. She continued, “The 1967 Abortion Act has been abused for 40 years and sex selection of babies for abortion is just the latest way in which the wholly-inadequate rules are being manipulated by doctors. It is time that, as a civilised nation, we woke up to the way in which we are aborting tens of thousands of babies every year, simply to suit lifestyle choices”. Andrea Williams of Christian Concern added, “The DPP has refused to enforce the law and this sends the wrong message to the medical world”.
However the accused doctors themselves contacted the CPS, who subsequently blocked the private prosecution, stating that “it was not in the public interest” to continue, despite finding that there was “a realistic prospect of conviction”. It refused to release further video evidence which it held. Understandably the decision by the CPS has caused considerable concern in several quarters. Miss Hubert argues that the DPP acted illegally from “political motives”. UKIP MP Douglas Carswell is quoted as saying to a worried constituent: “I think you are right to be very concerned about the role of the CPS. The CPS likes to masquerade as objective, but in fact they make very subjective judgements, and I think those judgements are not always right.” Miss Hubert is additionally facing a costs order of £26 000 made against her by one of the doctors.
Concern was also expressed by Andrea Williams: “So far, justice has not been done. These doctors were breaking the law when they agreed to offer abortions on the basis of gender.” She continued, “Aisling Hubert has been trying to bring to account two doctors who were prepared to break the law and allow the abortion of baby girls. Her attempts to seek justice have been persistently and vociferously undermined by the CPS.”
Miss Hubert’s case was supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Her hope was that the DPP would be forced to reconsider the decision not to prosecute,
and that the cases would come, with full video evidence, before a jury. She added, “My aim is for these two doctors to be brought to justice and for the Judge then to ask the Attorney General to review the application of the Abortion Act and draw up tighter guidelines. . . . There was clear video evidence . . . yet the CPS refused to prosecute . . . . Every week CCTV footage is used by police and the CPS to convict criminals . . . yet in this case the DPP has refused to allow the courts to consider the evidence. . . . The failure of the DPP to take action gives the impression that we have abortion on demand . . . the law can only protect if it is enforced.” We understand that Miss Hubert plans to appeal against the High Court’s ruling.
Of course, abortion on demand is the reality. We do not just need tighter guidelines; we need the infamous Act repealed. Since 1967 millions of unborn babies have been murdered, and God not only holds the doctors accountable but also all who have participated in this infanticide. Indeed our whole nation is guilty of their blood. How we need to repent and pray, “Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation” (Ps 51:14). KHM
“The True Meaning of Christmas”
“The New Testament does not oblige Christians to celebrate Christmas, or for that matter Easter. But the wisdom of the church throughout the ages suggests that if we do not celebrate the incarnation of Christ deliberately at some point in the year we may be in danger of doing it all too rarely and, perhaps, not all.” So writes Rev Sinclair Ferguson in his new book Child in the Manger: The True Meaning of Christmas, published by Banner of Truth. We have not seen the book, but the quotation is given in The Banner of Truth magazine for December.
Contrary to Dr Ferguson, we think that the search for “the true meaning of Christmas” is misguided. The heart of the “Christmas celebration” consists, as far as we can see, in a break from work, a large meal with one’s family, the sending of cards and the giving of presents, and (often) some comforting and superficial religion. The observance of Christmas was originally tied, as Dr Ferguson notes, to the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia, and “Christmas” seems to have been set up as a Christian alternative and rival. Ever since, probably, there have been dismayed Christians trying to call irreligious revellers back to “the true meaning of Christmas”.
The problem with this is that a man-made festival has exactly the content that men put into it, and no more. By contrast, the Sabbath, which is appointed by God, has a blessing bound up in it: “God blessed the Sabbath Day and sanctified it” (Gen 2:3). Those who are keeping the Sabbath can seek this special blessing for their souls, which is available on the Sabbath but not on
other days of the week. Similarly a special blessing is bound up with the observance of the Lord’s Supper – the discerning of the Lord’s body (1 Cor 11:29) – which is not to be found on other occasions. The observance of Christmas is not appointed by God, and therefore has no special blessing bound up in it, and no “true meaning” either.
We can seek a blessing, on any day of the year, from those parts of the Word of God which speak of the incarnation of the Saviour, but we will not increase that blessing by appointing a special day to “celebrate” Christ’s incarnation. On the contrary, we will find that, by so doing, we have made a snare for ourselves and others, as the Christian Church has sadly discovered in all generations, with her continual unwarranted additions to God-appointed worship.
The introduction of one man-made element in religion opens the door to others, and it is no coincidence that the same page of the Banner of Truth magazine which advertises Dr Ferguson’s book also advertises a book by another former Church of Scotland minister about the need to leave the Church of Scotland. The observance of Christmas was opposed by the Church of Scotland from the Reformation in 1560, but was re-introduced by the ritualistic movement in the later nineteenth century, and from there one can trace her steady downward path to the toleration of homosexuality in the early twenty-first century. One step of conformity to the world has led, under the guidance of Satan, to the next; and it will ever be so. The only safe way is never to enter that path in the first place. “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” (Song 2:15). DWBS
The Paris Atrocity
We note with sadness the murder of 130 people in Paris by Muslim terrorists. The Lord is using Islam as a scourge to chastise Western Europe for her rejection of the Reformation and the Word of God. There is no sign of any repentance or recognition of the hand of God, either in France or Britain. Instead, there is a determination to continue in atheism and hedonism exactly as before. DWBS
Syrian Migrants Moving to Bute
The BBC News has reported on the impending arrival of 15 families of Syrian migrants on the island of Bute. Among other arrangements being made to welcome them was the provision of a church hall which they could use as a mosque. Our Reformation and Covenanting forefathers would have been deeply dismayed at the setting up of Islam in any part of Scotland. An Islamic colony on Bute might be short-lived, but it might expand over the decades until it dominates Bute, as has happened in several parts of England. DWBS