Thousands of pro-lifers gathered over the weekend in support of the annual March for Life UK event held in London.
The event was also attended by 15 Catholic bishops, who earlier in the day had their Mass disrupted by abortion activists at Westminster Cathedral.
The march began at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster before making its way to the front of the Houses of Parliament.
For some time now abortion in the UK, unlike in the US, had been something of a “settled issue” that very few politicians wished to meddle with. That changed last year when Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi put forward an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that removed all legal sanctions for women aborting their unborn children.
MPs voted in support of the measure, which effectively means that a woman can legally terminate her pregnancy at any point. Doctors are still required to adhere to the 24-week legal limit, barring exceptional circumstances.
Critics have noted that the change may actually serve to incentivise the back-street abortions that pro-abortion activists have long said they oppose.
There has also been considerable concern in recent years about the use of abortion buffer zones to silence free speech. Earlier this year a pastor in Northern Ireland was found guilty of breaching such a zone after preaching an open-air sermon, despite the sermon making no mention of abortion.
On the morning of this year’s March for Life, a group of counter-protesters, who were vastly outnumbered by the pro-life crowd, stormed into Westminster Cathedral, disrupting a Mass being held.
The Mass was attended by 15 Catholic bishops who later joined the March for Life. SG News reports that the Mass concluded peacefully after the protesters were escorted from the premises. Critics commenting online questioned whether the activists would do the same in a mosque.
Speaking to EWTN News, March For Life organizer Ben Thatcher, said, “Every single human life is made in the image and likeness of God. Abortion ends that life, and when abortion does end that life, we are looking at a great, great tragedy - something that affects not just that person, but that family and the society and culture we live in.”
