Why the House of Lords abortion vote leaves me offended, ashamed and apprehensive

Some evils shout. They march, they headline, they provoke outrage.

Others whisper. They slip through quietly, dressed as progress, framed as compassion, yet no less deadly.

It was this quieter evil that emerged on Wednesday 18th March within the House of Lords.

Under the language of reform, two decisions were advanced: the decriminalisation of DIY abortion as much as birth; and the continuation of the establishment since Covid with the choice to not reinstate the requirement for in-person medical consultation before abortion pills are prescribed.

Many opposed it, including the brand new Archbishop of Canterbury and a number of other bishops. But the hassle failed.

And something has shifted. 

Two Decisions. One Message.

Strip it down and that is what now stands:

– There is effectively no deadline on abortion.

– Abortion is treated as something that could be self-administered, without proper oversight.

Together, they declare: abortion is not any big deal.

But it’s a giant deal. It is all the time a giant deal. And it leaves me with three emotions: offended, ashamed and apprehensive.

Let me say first: there are real heartbreaking situations here. There are women under pressure, fear, coercion and deep distress. We have to be compassionate. But compassion that demands silence within the face of flawed is just not compassion; it’s give up.

Angry – Because Life Is Being Diminished

I’m offended because life is being trivialised. We are told it’s ‘only a foetus’. But that language collapses within the later stages of pregnancy. The unborn child can hear, recognise voices, respond, even learn.

This is human life. Yet the law now effectively says that ending that life, even on the very end, is just not against the law.

Let us speak plainly:

Abortion doesn’t prevent a girl from becoming a mother. Abortion makes a girl the mother of a dead baby.

That is just not rhetoric. That is reality.

And the Bible speaks with clarity:

‘You shall not murder.’
(Exodus 20:13 NIV)

‘Did not he who made me within the womb make them? Did not the identical one form us each inside our moms?’
(Job 31:15 NIV)

Life is just not ours to eliminate. It is God’s to provide and God’s to take.

Ashamed – Because Responsibility Is Being Abandoned

I’m ashamed. Ashamed that decisions of such gravity are made so quickly, so evenly.

Ashamed that moral seriousness is being replaced by cultural convenience.

And deeply ashamed that so many bishops didn’t even turn up.

When the church must have been present, it was absent.

When a voice was needed, there was silence.

When lives were at stake, seats were empty.

Absence, in moments like this, is just not neutral. It is a press release.

The church has all the time declared that human beings are made within the image of God – sacred, not disposable. Yet now, under pressure, those convictions are quietly put aside. We were once a nation that aspired upward. Now we risk drifting downward.

Apprehensive – Because This Does Not Stop Here

I’m apprehensive because this doesn’t stop here.

If life before birth could be ended without consequence, what anchors life after birth?

If price is set by convenience, then nobody is ultimately protected.

History warns us that when a society decides some lives matter less, it has already begun to lose its way.

Today the unborn. Tomorrow – who knows?

But my deepest apprehension is that this …

God sees. God knows. And God has spoken.

‘Do not be deceived: God can’t be mocked. A person reaps what he sows.’
(Galatians 6:7 NIV)

‘Woe to those that call evil good and good evil.’
(Isaiah 5:20 NIV)

We may rewrite laws, but we cannot rewrite truth. A nation that sanctions the destruction of its most vulnerable cannot indefinitely escape the implications – spiritually, morally or socially.

This is just not nearly law, it’s about who we’re. The gospel tells us that God doesn’t discard the weak – he enters their world. He comes not in power, but as a toddler. And from that moment comes a truth that shaped civilisation at its best: every life matters. Especially the smallest. Especially the voiceless.

And there isn’t a another voiceless than the unborn.

So I’ll stand for them. Because in the long run, a nation is just not measured by its progress, nor its prosperity, nor even its laws, but by the way it treats those that cannot defend themselves. And after we silence the smallest voices, ignore the weakest lives, and justify what should never be justified, we may quiet our conscience, we may pass our laws, we may persuade ourselves, but we won’t escape this truth: God will judge.

‘Lord, have mercy on us.’