The new pro-lifers

The rise in infertility has given a huge boost to the anti-abortion movement, argues Cristina Odone in the Guardian. 

’The stereotype of the anti-abortion activist was never particularly accurate. Victoria Gillick, fired by religious zeal and with a brood of children clinging to her apron strings, made for great copy and televisual images; but even back in the early 80s pro-life campaigns drew young professionals as well as Catholic morality mums.

‘The new pro-lifers are different. They aren’t freaks or fanatics; they are probably your neighbours. They may not volunteer to stuff envelopes or hand out leaflets for traditional anti-abortion organisations such as Life and Spuc (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child). They don’t evangelise and they certainly don’t intimidate. They don’t even regard abortion as a ‘sin’. This new wave of pro-lifers hate abortion because they hate the waste of an egg. They are among Britain’s growing number of infertile couples who, after years trying for a baby, and many cycles of IVF treatment, know just how precious that egg can be...’

Cristina Odone was editor of the Catholic Heraldand deputy editor of the New Statesman.

Read full article: The new pro-lifers, Guardian, 29 March 2006

See