Margaret Thatcher’s views on abortion might surprise you

John Smeaton of SPUC has this week published a short blog listing Baroness Thatcher’s voting record on abortion which he describes as ‘mixed, with a move in a more positive direction in her later parliamentary years’.

In short Thatcher:

1. Voted for (what became) the Abortion Act 1967 at 2nd reading and at Report stage (voting many times for the bill during all-night sittings), though she was absent at 3rd reading

2. Showed a mixed pattern of voting on several attempts by anti-abortion MPs to amend the Abortion Act (St John Stevas, Corrie, Alton)

3. Supported the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill (now Act) 1990, which enshrined destructive embryo research in law and via which the Abortion Act 1967 was extended with ministerial help

4. Voted against various anti-life/anti-family provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill (now Act) 2008

David Mills, writing for ‘First Things’ this week in an article titled ‘The Complicated Margaret Thatcher’  reviews a Telegraph blog by Damian Thompson and an interview she gave for the Catholic Herald in 1978.

When asked what her attitude to abortion in principle was she answered:

‘The abortion law is only related to the early months and I voted for abortion under controlled conditions. I’m perfectly prepared to have the Act amended along the lines of the Select Committee recommendations because I think that it’s operating in a slightly more lax way than was intended, but I’m not prepared to abolish it completely. Abortion only applies to the very, very early days, but the idea that it should be used as a method of birth control I find totally abhorrent.’

Mrs Thatcher told the interviewer that while Catholics believed that as soon as the ovum was fertilised you had a human being, she believed that ‘after a few months of pregnancy the foetus took on the characteristics of a human being’.

Even then, she said ‘you may have to take the life of the child in order to save the life of the mother, but that is a medical judgment’.

So it seems that she would have been very unhappy with the present situation where 200,000 abortions occur annually in Britain, with 98% being carried out on mental health grounds.

Thatcher’s views would have placed her at the very conservative end of current parliamentarians, but would not be out of place amongst current Conservative cabinet ministers.

Most Conservative members of the cabinet, with the exception of David Cameron, George Osborne and one or two others, have previously voted for lowering the abortion limit to 20 weeks or below

However, when the issue was last voted on in parliament in 2008, MPs rejected any lowering of the upper limit of 24 weeks by substantial majorities.

Votes were as follows:

22-week limit - defeated by 304 to 233

20 week limit - defeated by 332 to 190

16 week limit - defeated by 387 to 84

12 week limit – defeated by 393 to 71

 MPs are, in other words, very liberal on the issue. A substantial proportion of those who voted even for 12 weeks would not have opposed abortion earlier than this.

 So as parliamentarians go Thatcher was at the very conservative end of the spectrum.

 But for those of us who believe that human life should be shown the utmost respect from the time of conception these facts are very sobering indeed. 

Margaret Thatcher recognises the wisdom and goodness of Jesus Christ

Whatever one’s final verdict on Margaret Thatcher, even her harshest critics have conceded that she was at heart a ‘conviction politician’ who was driven by ideology and not swayed by public opinion.

One of her most famous quotes was that given to Conservatives at the party conference in Brighton in 1980 and underlining her determination to stick to tough economic policies:

‘To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!’

In like manner Sir Malcolm Rifkind recalled this week a time when she was asked ‘Do you believe in consensus?’ and replied:

‘Yes, I do believe in consensus: There should be a consensus behind my convictions.’

However a touching letter she wrote to a schoolboy published this week in the Express and Daily Mail reveals that she felt she lived in the shadow of at least one person.

On 15 March, 1980, in the same year as Thatcher’s Brighton speech above, David Liddelow, the young son of a vicar, wrote to her, posing her a challenging question. The youngster, from Borehamwood, Herts, asked:

‘Last night when we were saying prayers my Daddy said everyone has done wrong things except Jesus. I said I don’t think you have done bad things because you are the Prime Minister. Am I right or is my Daddy?’

A few weeks later, David and his father, received a handwritten reply in fountain pen:

‘However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise as Jesus… There will be times when we say or do something we wish we hadn’t done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again! We do our best, but our best is not as good as his daily life. If you and I were to paint a picture it wouldn’t be as good as the picture of great artists. No our lives can’t be as good as the life of Jesus.’

In a touching and candid final paragraph, Mrs Thatcher added:

‘As Prime Minister, I try very hard to do things right and because Jesus gave us a perfect example I try even harder. But your father is right in saying that we can never be as perfect as He was.’

Jesus himself was once called good by someone asking him a similarly tricky question and gave a surprising reply:

‘ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.’ (Mark 10:17,18)

The text is often misunderstood as implying that Jesus was denying his divinity, but as described in more detail here, he was actually doing the very opposite.

Jesus’ question to the man was designed not to deny His deity, but rather to draw the man to recognize Christ’s divine identity.

Such an interpretation is substantiated by passages such as John 10:11 wherein Jesus declares Himself to be ‘the good shepherd’. Similarly in John 8:46, Jesus asks, ‘Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?’

Of course the answer is ‘no’. Jesus was ‘without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15), holy and undefiled (Hebrews 7:26), the only One who ‘knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The logic can thus be summarised as follows:

1: Jesus claims only God is good
2: Jesus claims to be good
3: Therefore, Jesus claims to be God

Such a claim makes perfect sense in light of the flow of Mark’s narrative with regards to the unfolding revelation of Jesus’ real identity. It is only before the high priest in Mark 14:62 when the question of Jesus’ identity is explicitly clarified.

I am not sure whether Margaret Thatcher followed the logic through to this conclusion, but she had certainly taken a step onto the first rung by recognising the goodness of Jesus.

See also:

Is Jesus the only way to God?

Why did Jesus have to die?

The queen once again points her subjects to Jesus Christ