Young people stand up for the unborn in Lewisham

This past Saturday I assisted with an SPUC outreach at Lewisham Peoples Day, South East London's largest and longest running free festival. The day was organised by Daniel Blackman, a colleague of mine at SPUC.

This was the first time that there has been a pro-life presence at this event. There is a serious need for pro-life witness all over the world. However, I think we have an especially urgent need in London and this particular corner of London has among the highest abortion rates in the UK.

On the same day Lewisham Council were launching their Condom Card scheme, which is all about giving teenagers free condoms. This scheme will include condoms being distributed in youth clubs, libraries, schools, colleges and leisure centres.

Over the river, at the Houses of Parliament, a group of pro-abortion feminists called Abortion Rights were holding a protest.

There were eleven of us in total, all of us under thirty five.

The gang's all here! (I'm third from the right in a blue t-shirt)

I was chuffed that Juventutem London was well represented, as well as 40 Days for Life London, which has been such a blessing for the pro-life movement in England.

On our stall we set up two sets of the How you Began child development models. These attracted a lot of interest.

We also gave away about 50 tiny baby models, with information about the Good Counsel Network on the back.

We used placards of the first nine months of human development, attaching them along the bottom of the stalls.

We offered free face painting to all....

Butterflies, tigers, hearts, and spidermen

I was personally really encouraged by the response we received from the public. We had a lot of discussions with people from a vast variety of backgrounds.

Of course, there were some people who opposed our presence and criticised us for being there. You have to expect that. I spent a long time in discussion with a woman, who after speaking with her for about twenty minutes told us that she was a former employee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest abortion provider. She opposed our presence, but I was very pleased that we were able to speak openly to each other for such a long period. However, I was saddened that she was able to look at and even pick up the life-sized baby models and tell us that such children didn't have a right to live.

The text reads: 'A baby alive and well in the mother's womb at sixteen weeks of pregnancy, fourteen weeks after fertilisation. Life-size.

This lady was able to pick up a life-sized model of a sixteen week old child and say that it didn't have a right to live and that it wasn't akin to killing somebody who has been born.

If you'd like to learn more about child development watch this video.

We all existed from the moment of conception and from that moment we must recognise the humanity of all.

I also spoke at length with two women handing out condoms. They both told us that they were opposed to abortion and that they were very glad of our presence at the fair. I told them that, while I refused to judge them, I was not glad that they were there handing out condoms. I explained that by giving condoms to teenagers they were encouraging them to have sex at an early age. I explained that condoms are a part of the abortion problem. The more we encourage young people to have pre-marital sex, the more they will do so and the more unwanted pregnancies will occur. I explained to them that contraception has been a part of the abortion-lobby's agenda from the beginning, because the abortion lobby knows that all contraceptives have a failure rate and that when people become pregnant from a sexual act which has tried and failed to close itself to the possibility of new life, then abortion is the solution to what people see as the problem of their pregnancy. I told them that people deserve better than condoms.

Again I was saddened by their response. One of the women earnestly told me that she wished everybody would share my values and how much she admired them. But she wasn't prepared to promote them herself. She was there to promote condoms. She was instead acting out a tragic part in a culture that kills its young at a rate higher than any previous civilisation in humanity's history.

One thing that people who are staunchly pro-contraception seem not to realise is that human beings are capable of waiting for marriage and having loving relationships. Some seem to believe that teenage sex is inevitable and condoms are a necessity because of this.

Sure, human beings have a natural desire to engage in sexual acts. Sure, these desires are particularly strong when we're young. But it isn't unavoidably inevitable that everybody will engage in pre-marital sex. The reality is that when people are taught that there is a better way many of them respond.

If nobody - or at least very few people - are prepared to tell young people that there is a better way to love each other than through pre-marital contraceptive sex, then how are young people going to realise their true dignity in a culture which constantly pressures them into early sexual relationships?

These women might have been spending their time telling young men and women that they were made for more than sterile sex, but they chose to perform the function of a cog in what they seem to believe is a controlled, yet uncontrollable process.

I am very pleased to say that there were many people who were very receptive to what we had to say. I spoke to a number of people who considered themselves anti-abortion, but they were unsure about pregnancies caused by rape. Through our conversations I'm confident that some of them came to realise that abortion is another attack on a woman, as well as her unborn child and that it can never be the compassionate response to rape.

Other people I spoke to were opposed to abortion in all circumstances, but didn't appreciate the urgency of our present situation with hundreds of babies being killed every day. One abortion is a grave tragedy. The tragedy of our present time is difficult to comprehend.

A number of people were openly grateful to us for being there. I hope we can do more. I hope all of us who were there will be confirmed and emboldened in our pro-life conviction. I hope more people, old and young, will join us in standing up for the lives of unborn children and reaching out to women considering abortion and to those who falsely believe they are doing good by assisting abortions.

Anthony and Omar - SPUC's newest supporters!

UPDATE: Apostolate of the Laity has also now blogged on this.