Interview Report

Thank you so much to everyone who let us know that you were praying for us.  The interview went well and lasted over an hour.  The journalist has only been in her post for four weeks and her editor had suggested/requested that she do an article on abortion following news that the Marie Stopes Clinic in Bristol had performed the highest number of abortions in the past year since they began.  She did interview them and obviously their main reason for this rise in abortions carried out by them was 'lack of knowledge about contraception'.

We, my husband Chris and I, began by explaining who United for Life is - not part of any other group but set up so that we can get the information out for others to use without the need to form local groups with all that that necessitates; fundraising, taking minutes at meetings etc - time better spent (in our opinion) to actually do the letter writing to MPs, newspapers, hospitals etc.  We explained that we have a page on our website that assists supporters on how they can campaign from home.  We explained that although we have done exhibitions in the past and produced our own leaflets most of our work is done via the web.  We explained that obviously we do not know who has read it but we do know it reaches world wide from the e-mails we have received.  She commented, speaking about herself, that journalists also read it.

I said that our main reason why we are pro-life is that it is wrong to kill and abortion is the killing of children.  We explained the development of the unborn child;

• heart beating at 21 days and pumping its own blood and will continue to pump until the person dies whether that be at ten weeks or eighty years;



• that the name changes from embryo to foetus at eight weeks as the baby is fully formed at that stage and only needs to grow;



• we showed her ten week old models as well as the tiny feet (lapel badge - International Pro-Life symbol), explaining how the photo of the little feet had been taken by someone who had to ensure all the body parts had been removed from the womb and he had been so shocked to see little feet that even had toe prints in the Petri dish that he had a photo taken to show that if the feet and toes were this well formed then so would the rest of the body;



• we showed the photo of the 'teardrop' baby at six weeks that had lived following an ectopic pregnancy, explaining that nowadays many people say a pregnancy doesn't occur until the baby is in the womb (implantation) but pointed out that no baby ever reaches the womb in an ectopic pregnancy yet the woman is still pregnant;



• we explained that many women say they do not want to be a mother 'at this time' for whatever reason yet they have actually become a mother from the moment of conception (when the egg and sperm meet up to six days before implantation in the womb) and at the end of any pregnancy she will either be a mother of a dead baby or a live baby.

We also emphasised that not only is there a mother at the time of conception but also a father and grandparents.

When explaining the abortion procedures to her she was really shocked, having no idea that the baby is either sucked, cut or torn to pieces to be removed, let alone that its head has to be crushed to be removed but when I showed her a plastic suction tube and put the model baby against it, she immediately saw how it could not be removed in one piece.  She was also unaware that a late pregnancy involved the baby being killed by an injection into the heart before labour was induced.  She was horrified to hear what happens in a partial birth abortion where a doctor pulls the baby out of the mother's body through the birth canal feet first and then scissors are inserted into back of the neck and opened (killing the baby), and the brain sucked out so the skull can collapse and the baby removed to obtain organs or ovaries for future experimentation - something she had never heard of.  We did explain this does not occur in this country but some States in the US do perform this operation.

Using the examples of my grandsons, first I explained how Seth, following a scan, should have been a girl (up until about two weeks before he was born when we found out 'she' may be a 'he'), but had my daughter-in-law not wanted a girl (babies can be killed by abortion for being the 'wrong'gender) she could have killed Seth 'by mistake'.  I also explained that three days after he was born it was discovered that he had congenital heart disease and had to have open heart surgery at thirteen days old.  I said that he still needs further treatment to his heart (the aortic valve needs to be replaced possibly next year) but his parents are doing everything that they can to keep him alive.  Yet babies are tested while in the womb and if anything is found that is 'not normal' than the killing of the child by abortion is offered as a solution to the 'problem'.  Seth could so easily have been killed had his condition been discovered before he was born.  I then explained that Rane, my other grandson, developed Type 1 diabetes when he was two and a half, stating that none of us know what illness or injury may befall us in life, but that is no excuse to kill an unborn baby just in case something is not 'right' in the womb or even with IVF having babies selected that have been screened first, selecting only the 'perfect' ones.

Still talking about disability I said that if people believe in evolution (assuming most people who support the killing of children by abortion don't believe in creation) then why are they killing babies that may have Down Syndrome - these children have an extra gene so may well be the next step in evolution, especially as it is known that they are the most loving of people and wouldn't start wars or even think to harm anyone.  Although I had said it was a 'silly' argument, she could see the logic in it.   We also emphasised that by killing children in the womb with disabilities it sends out a negative message of 'they shouldn't have been born' to anyone living who has a disability even though society says they are equal.  Again, she understood the argument.  This then led on to the eugenic issue, where Chris explained where this 'seek and destroy' attitude came from, explaining about Charles Darwin and his cousin Sir Fancis Goulton who went on to found the Eugenics movement so that only the fittest should survive instead of nations wasting money on keeping the weakest alive.  Chris explained about Marie Stopes and Margaret Sanger, two of the greatest eugenicists, who went on to found birth control clinics, and ultimately International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF which runs all the Family Planning Associations worldwide) so that the poorest people would be able to use contraception to prevent them having children.  (Abortion is a back-up for failed contraception but I cannot remember if we actually said that).  We pointed out that Hitler took the eugenics idea to its ultimate conclusion by killing people who, in his opinion, should not be allowed to live; the handicap, Jews, homosexuals - all were classed as non-persons, as are slaves and also how the unborn are now seen.

Chris explained about our Make Abortion History campaign especially saying that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the right to life of 'all members of the human family' and quoting 'the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.' which is from the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

We explained that there have been about six and a half million babies killed by abortion in the UK since the Abortion Act of 1967 and went through the yearly, weekly and daily figures of approximately two hundred thousand, three and a half thousand and five hundred respectively.  We said that this is one of the reasons why many people now do not have marriage partners and even she said that maybe that was why she was not married yet (she is 24).  I also pointed out that she, and anyone alive today since the law changed is an abortion survivor as they are part of a generation whose mother chose that they could live.  We discussed the fact that it has been reported that one in three women will have had an abortion in this nation yet despite it being the most common operation (in the world) it is the most secretive and women are not able to discuss the pain they are feeling as it was their decision to have the abortion and that there is nothing to grieve - you don't grieve the death of a 'non-person'.  We said that many church ministers fail to speak out against abortion as they may upset women in their churches who may have had an abortion in the past and do not want to seem to be judging them or causing them more pain.  She was already aware of my story having read it on the website, but we did give her a hard copy leaflet (as well as various other leaflets and books).  I did explain it was following my accepting Jesus into my life that I confessed my abortion but that it still took me at least fifteen years to be as fully healed as I am now.

She asked about the issue of rape and back street abortion where we were able to explain that rape is one violation and the killing of an innocent child who, if allowed to be born could bring love and healing, would be another violation on the woman.  We also asked why a child should be killed just because s/he has a nasty father.  We explained how killing a child from rape or incest could actually cover up the abusive situation whereas carrying the child to term identifies the abuse and hopefully stops it re-occurring.  We explained that the figures for back street abortions were greatly exaggerated prior to the law changing as well as currently being stated, and this can be seen by actually looking at official records of women who were admitted to hospital and the reasons given for deaths, and that nobody knows the true figure because they were secret but they are nowhere near as high as stated by those promoting abortion laws.  We said that adoption rates have also fallen drastically and even she said that there are thousands wanting to adopt but cannot.

She also asked about other pro-life agencies (she didn't name any) who are more 'aggressive' in the way they promote their views especially by showing pictures of aborted babies.  We said that it is the people who see the photos who are upset by being confronted with the truth of their actions who take offence, not the material that is offensive.  We said that we could be arrested by sending such photos in the post and she said that she had heard of the case where the elderly man had been imprisoned for doing just that recently.  We said that the whole of society is affected by the killing of children by abortion and once they know the truth they have to do something about it and so they would prefer not to be confronted with the truth by seeing these photos.

Another reason why we said we are against abortion is that it can physically harm the woman.  Many women are trying to have babies who may well have had an abortion in the past, but are now having to seek IVF as they are unable to conceive.  Had they not had an abortion they may well have then not become infertile due to the abortion.  We explained about the link to breast cancer and how many women think breast cancer runs in their family when in effect, it could be that that family member or members who had breast cancer actually developed it because they had had an abortion and never told anyone about it.  I explained about the breast cells not being able to change into mammary glands properly once the first pregnancy had begun and then abruptly stopped and then becoming cancerous many years later.  We also said that women are trying to live healthy lifestyles by watching what they eat and exercising yet they then take harmful drugs like the contraceptive pill, morning after pill, RU486 etc to make the body change the way it functions naturally.

I said that for anyone to receive healing and forgiveness they must be told that what they did was wrong and not that what they did was right for them at the time.  Until they can admit it was wrong the self justification and denial will continue and healing will not take place, no matter who is offering the post abortion counselling.

She left us to go back and research our website which contains the above information and to hopefully write an article that expresses some or all of the above.   We are currently waiting for a photographer to arrive so it looks as though she will be using some of our information.