Life begins at the moment of conception. If we hadn't been conceived we simply wouldn't be here. This is a simple scientific and medical fact. If life doesn't begin at conception, then when?

Abortion is the taking of a unique and unrepeatable human life. If you are pregnant, you're having a baby. If you terminate a pregnancy (abortion), you take a baby's life. Abortion is an irreversible decision - you cannot get your baby back.

Abortion has many victims. The baby is the first and most obvious victim. Its life is taken. The mother is also a victim. She is told she has the right to choose and yet women are never shown the consequences of the choice they make. Her child is spoken of as a *foetus, embryo, nothing yet, or products of conception¹. She would seldom, if ever, be shown her child on an ultrasound scan or even still pictures of the baby in the womb.

A woman often opts for abortion because she can see no way out of her crisis. She aborts for social reasons, owing to lack of support, lack of finance, worry about her relationships with the child's father or her parents or peers. If given real choices, the majority of women would not choose abortion. There must be and are other alternatives, other choices.

Many women suffer from post abortion syndrome. They are grieving for the child they have lost and their lives, relationship and family life can be very badly affected. Abortion can also have physical consequences, including problems with future fertility and childbearing.

Abortion also affects fathers who under the present law, have no rights in an abortion decision even if they are married. It also affects other family members and siblings. Statistically conception after rape is very rare. To abort in these circumstances is to punish the victim, not the perpetrator - it does not undo the crime.