The Real Life and Death Issue of the Election

On Tuesday night we heard from Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer in the first debate of this election campaign. A key topic was the NHS and waiting lists. At one point Julie Etchingham intervened to get them to address the issue: ‘This is a life or death issue’ she stated gravely. Currently there are about 7.8 million people on waiting lists for elective treatment on the NHS. According to an Evening Standard article in 2022, 117,000 people died in the previous year while waiting for an operation in England. Of this number, how many deaths could have been prevented had they been seen earlier it is not easy to tell. What is sure however is that it is not as many deaths as have been caused deliberately through abortion.

According to the latest figures, in 2022 there were approximately 250,000 abortions which took place in England and Wales, of which 98% were funded by the NHS. Given that, according to 96% of biologists worldwide, human life begins at fertilization, this means that in simple terms, the NHS is responsible for far more deaths through abortion than through waiting lists. The real life or death issue facing the NHS is abortion.

How should we deal with this life or death issue? Vote Life is committed to the opinion that legislation should be introduced which enshrines the right to life of every human being from conception onwards. However, perhaps a first step would be to remove abortion from the NHS. According to a Telegraph article in 2011, abortions cost the taxpayer £118 million pounds, and this was when there were a total of 173,00 abortions. If the cost per abortion to the taxpayer has not changed, that would make the total for 2022 £170 million pounds.

What if that money were re-allocated towards the saving of life, rather than towards its destruction? How much good could be done through the re-allocation of these funds? These are questions everyone should think about in times when, as we have heard repeatedly last night, money is tight.

But let’s get real and put economic arguments aside, this is a moral issue of gigantic proportions. Are we willing to live with the fact that we are funding the killing of innocent babies in the womb? If not you should Vote Life, and if you don’t have a local Vote Life candidate lobby your local MP.