I had the badge. You know, the one for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. I was a committed member of the anti-nuclear movement and proudly wore my badge. Sometimes I wore it to political meetings where it served as a reminder that I was 'on the right side of history' and suitably 'progressive/socialist'. I haven't seen that badge, except on old hippie vans, for many years. As an issue it doesn't even register in our elections. But there is another symbol, another cause which if you don't support you are clearly beyond the pale. What is it? Let's start our story in my own turf of Australia.
A strange thing happened in the State of Queensland in the past month. The ruling Labor party seemed on course for a crushing defeat in the State elections, when the Premier Stephen Miles decided to make abortion an issue. Taking a leaf out of the Kamala Harris playbook he suddenly started arguing that 'women's reproductive health rights were at stake'. Although the opposition Liberal party had no proposals for changing the current law, even the suggestion of a threat was considered to be a vote winner. It may have been, but the Labor party still lost, and the new Liberal State government has just been sworn in.
Meanwhile in the US Kamala Harris, facing a downturn in polls (although they are so close that it is anyone's guess who is really ahead) decided to play again what she considers to be her winning ticket – abortion. Together with Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, she has upped the rhetoric claiming that any restrictions on abortion are a 'healthcare crisis' and that, what she incorrectly calls 'Trump's abortion ban' is killing women. Apart from the fact that she conveniently ignores the fact that more than 20 women have died because of the abortion pill, she also makes numerous false claims that need fact checked – see my earlier article on this.
Meanwhile the Scottish government, which is also struggling, agrees that abortion is a vote winner. Last month new legislation was enacted which prevents any kind of protest, prayer or even presence within a 200m 'excluded' zone outside an abortion clinic (a similar law exists in England). Such is the zeal with which this order is being enforced that The Daily Telegraph reported it could be a crime to pray in your own home.
A letter was sent to residents within an Edinburgh exclusion area warning them that while the offences in general only applied in public places, "however activities in a private place (such as a house) within the area between the protected premises and the boundary of a zone could be an offence if they can be seen or heard within the zone and are done intentionally or recklessly." The letter warned that regulation breakers could be fined up to £10,000. Religious preaching, prayer or silent vigils could be subject to prosecution if they are done with "intent or recklessness".
As a preacher I have no idea how to preach without intent! And I fear that much of my preaching might be called "reckless". After all, were not the early Christian preachers accused of 'turning the world upside down' (Acts 17:6) because they dared to speak words which were not acceptable to the authorities of the day?
If I live in a so-called exclusion zone and we are singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing with the line 'offspring of a virgin's womb', what if someone found that offensive? What if I write on my Facebook that that day I had been praying Psalm 139 – how I was knit together in my mother's womb - and someone reading it said: wait a minute, that is within the exclusion zone of the abortion clinic I work at – that is intentional and reckless! What a state that Scotland - once known as the 'land of the people of the Book' has come to – that private prayer within a private home can now be criminalised.
There is a deep contradiction here. Humza Yousaf, the short-lived First Minister of Scotland, recently tweeted on the anniversary of the Scottish government setting up a book of remembrance for babies miscarried before 24 weeks. He stated that the parents were grieving because they had lost a baby – a member of their family. On the one hand he was saying that it was a reason to grieve because a child had been lost; on the other he defended the right of the family to take the life of their own child.
So why is there this obsession with abortion? How have we moved from 'it should be safe and rare' to it now being a badge of honour? When did questioning abortion and arguing for the right of the baby to live, become a badge of fascism?
I think part of what is going on is that our society, having abandoned its Christian principles - which are principles of life - has ended up endorsing a culture of death. In our desire to be as God and to be in control – modern society calls it autonomy and freedom – we want to be able to determine which of our children we should let live and, with the push towards assisted suicide, when we or our parents can die.
And it won't end there. The right to die will become the duty to die. The right to abort can easily become the duty to abort – I have personally known people who were put under enormous pressure to abort their child because it would be 'the right thing to do'.
Abortion is now way more than a desperate measure required in the most horrendous of circumstances. In a society where we are worrying about the birth replacement rate and the subsequent depopulation threat, how does it make sense to encourage the killing of healthy babies? Is it not ironic that Scotland's population is about 400,000 below what it should be – almost exactly the number of babies aborted since the 1967 Abortion Act. Over 96% of abortions in the UK are carried out for social/economic/mental health reasons – not for severe disability, rape, or threat to the mother's life.
Where is the Church in all of this? In September 2021, Pope Francis declared that, "Abortion is more than an issue. Abortion is murder." He has also stated, "How can an action that ends an innocent and defenceless life in its blossoming stage be therapeutic, civilised or simply human? Is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem?"
Many Catholics are right behind the Pope in this and are commendably active in defending the unborn. But many are not – whether it is President Biden who flatly calls that which his Pope calls murder, 'a human right', or the extraordinary behaviour of the Australian Catholic University. When Joe de Bruyn, an important trade union leader and figure in the Labor party was awarded an honorary doctorate at the ACU last week, in his acceptance speech he mentioned abortion while encouraging Catholic students to uphold Catholic doctrine – at a Catholic university. There was a widely reported mass walkout from some students and staff.
The vice chancellor apologised and offered any students attending who were offended a refund of their graduation fee and counselling. The poor wee souls couldn't cope with what was a mild statement of Catholic belief. One shudders to think what therapy they would need if they heard the Pope's views.
What amazes me is the stunning silence from many Protestant and Evangelical church leaders – although there are also honourable exceptions - who will assure their congregations in private that they are opposed to abortion, but they say nothing in public. After all, why should we be caught breaking the Unholy State's blasphemy laws?
I seem to recall that there was once a powerful king who ordered that all people must obey his laws on prayer and when a young Jewish man refused, he ordered him thrown into the lion's den. The next day, expecting to be collecting his bones, he was astonished to find him still alive – and promptly gave the lions their meal by throwing in his accusers.
The lesson is obvious. It's time for the Church to stand by the sacrament of life - baptism - and reject the secular sacrament of death. They can threaten us with their equivalent of the lion's den, but we all know that in the end, love wins.
David Robertson is the minister of Scots Kirk Presbyterian Church in Newcastle, New South Wales. He blogs at The Wee Flea.
