A self-proclaimed supporter of the Abortion Act has admitted that abortion has become trivial for many people, as he reacted to revelations of sex selective abortions in the UK.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he disclosed that there were some he knew in the medical profession who had approved abortions for pregnant women simply because they “did not want their holidays spoilt by pregnancy”.
The commentator and former doctor, writing under his pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple, said people now view life as an existential supermarket in which they are consumers.
Slippery slope
Mr Dalrymple said he supported the 1967 Act, “not realising that its intentions would soon be subverted by a change in the character of the population, including that of doctors, who would easily affix their names to declarations they knew or suspected to be false.
“But now the genie is out of the bottle, and I fear there is no getting it back”.
He claimed the Abortion Act was never intended to be used in this way.
Mr Dalrymple commented that the “slippery slope” which ends with people believing that abortion is right under all circumstances has “long been slid down” by most people.
Consumer
The writer continued: “And the same people now conceive of life as an existential supermarket in which they are consumers, choosing the way they live much as they choose cranberry juice or the flavour of crisps that they want. And the customer in the existential supermarket, as in Tesco, is always right.”
Last week an undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed that women are being granted abortions after telling doctors their baby is the ‘wrong sex’.
On one occasion Prabha Sivaraman, who was working for both private clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was filmed telling a woman: “I don’t ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination.”
Police
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has reported the newspaper’s information to the police and said carrying out an abortion on the grounds of gender alone is “morally repugnant”.
The Chief Medical Officer is writing to all abortion clinics, NHS hospitals and Primary Care Trusts, to “remind them of their responsibilities and the requirements” under abortion legislation.