by Judith Sture, Virtueonline
I am writing this post for a few reasons. Firstly, to express my horror about recent votes in the UK Houses of Parliament; and secondly, to state that the outcomes of these do not, in my experience, represent the opinions of the majority of British people. Thirdly, I want to say to non-UK readers, that our country is not going to hell in a handbasket, but rather, is currently led by a morally-bankrupt group of people who are abandoning the rights and needs of the very people whom they represent, in favour of international interests and their own preferred ideologies.
Never in my lifetime have I felt ashamed of our House of Commons as much as I do today. Never did I even think that our MPs would vote in the way that they have in the past week. The interests of democracy have been under strain since the General Election in July 2024, with a government in place that has consistently failed to protect the neediest among our population. The wider social issues are for another post, but for today, I am addressing the right-to-life issues that have been potentially obliterated in the UK in recent days.
On Tuesday 17 June 2025, the House of Commons voted on an amendment to the government’s crime and policing bill, to allow abortion outside the legal framework without fear of prosecution. It is now possible for a woman to ‘terminate’ her baby (sorry, ‘foetus’ – better still, ‘clump of cells’) up to the day before the due date. Yes, you read that right – a woman in the UK can now choose to ‘abort’ a 9-months gestation baby and not face prosecution. The government won the vote with a majority of 242 votes. You read that right as well.