Canterbury speaks out on abortion

As you may have already heard, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has recently voiced concern that people in Great Britain and the West are insufficiently troubled about the commoness of abortion. He suggested that this signals a lack of respect for the human lives that are being taken through abortion. When abortion was legalized, it was still widely assumed that it was "profoundly undesirable" and was meant to give an option to women in extreme cases.

Now, abortion is easier, more common, and more socially acceptable in Great Britain, which has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe. Williams lamented that something had changed in people's assumptions about the unborn life of the baby and called for people to think harder about the consequences of their actions. In the face of home-administered abortion pills, Williams called for individuals to confer with others and not to make such a serious decision alone.

In keeping with my own Church's stance on this issue, I pray frequently for an end to abortion as a means of birth control (which, as I understand it, accounts for around 95% of all abortions), and I hope the Archbishop's statements will indeed cause people to re-think this issue.