PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thousands take part in minute of silence to commemorate 10 million lives lost to abortion
23 September 2022 – Today, thousands of people across the United Kingdom stopped for a minute of silence at 11:41am to commemorate the ten million lives that have been lost to abortion in England, Wales and Scotland since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967.
It is projected that the ten millionth baby had their life ended by abortion at 11:41am on Friday 23 September. The minute of silence took place to coincide with the tragic ending of this baby’s life and to also remember the other 9,999,999 lives that have been lost to abortion across England, Scotland and Wales.
Following the minute of silence, Right To Life UK released a video titled The Ten Million to commemorate the ten million people who had their lives ended through abortion and to attempt to illustrate what the UK has lost through the death of these millions of people.
The video began asking the question “Had these 10 million babies been born, who would they be today?” before proceeding to outline:
- About 500,000 of them would be in their 50s by now.
- There would be nearly 2,000,000 each in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
- 1,500,000 would now be teenagers.
- Nearly 2,000,000 would be children.
- 800,000 would currently be babies and toddlers.
- 5,000,000 would be women or girls, sisters, daughters, aunts, mothers and grandmas. Some of their most common names would be Emily, Jenny, Sarah, Emma and Olivia.
- Of the men and boys, the most common names would be Mike, Chris, Matt, Jake & Josh.
- About 3,300,000 would love Marmite, about 3,300,000 would hate it, and the remainder wouldn’t have minded either way.
- There would have been 2,900,000 more weddings and millions more couples would be in love.
BACKGROUND
In 2021, more than one baby was lost to abortion every two and a half minutes; 26 lives were ended every hour.
The number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high with 214,869 taking place in 2021, while 13,758 terminations were performed in Scotland in the same year.
Opinion polls repeatedly show that the public wants increased protections for unborn babies and the number of abortions reduced, rather than the wholesale removal of legal safeguards around abortion.
Only 1% of the population want abortion to be available up to birth and 70% of women want the abortion limit to be reduced to 20 weeks or lower.
Polling from 2019 revealed that over 41% of Londoners believe abortion should be illegal in almost all circumstances.
A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson said:
“At 11:41am today, a baby’s life was ended by abortion. This baby is projected to be the ten millionth baby to have their life ended by abortion in Great Britain”.
“People from right across the United Kingdom stopped for a minute of silence to coincide with the tragic ending of this baby’s life and to also remember the other 9,999,999 lives that have been lost to abortion across Great Britain”.
“It is a national tragedy that ten million lives have been lost since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act, each one a valuable human being who was denied the right to life”.
“Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies”.
“This day serves as a reminder for people around the country to renew their efforts to do everything they can to help ensure more lives are saved from abortion in the future”.
“This includes contacting MPs and asking them to ensure that protections for unborn babies are introduced and safeguards are strengthened to protect both mothers and babies – along with volunteering with pregnancy support centres and undertaking other pro-life activities that support mothers and their children during pregnancy and beyond”.
ENDS
- For additional quotes and media interviews contact press@righttolife.org.uk or 07774 483658.
- For further information on Right To Life UK visit www.righttolife.org.uk
*This figure is a projection for England, Wales and Scotland through to 11:41am on Friday 23 September 2022 and has been calculated based on the following assumptions:
- The number of abortions per day in England & Wales will remain the same in 2022 as in 2021.
- The number of abortions per day in Scotland will remain the same in 2022 and 2021 as in 2020.
- The rate of abortions throughout the year is evenly distributed.
- Please note, we have not included data for abortions that have occurred in Northern Ireland since 2020 because it has not been made clear on which day abortions began being performed in Northern Ireland and it is, therefore, unreliable to model a projection for the remainder of the year using this.
