All in a day's work

As I got to my office, on the 42nd floor at Canary Wharf, I noticed the window was open. Slightly surprised, I looked out. There was a young chap stood on the narrow ledge.

"I can't take it any more!" he said. "My savings have been wiped out, my girlfriend has left me, my mum's dying of cancer and the police are after me for dealing."

"So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want to end it all - but I don't dare jump."

So I gave him a helping hand - having checked there was nobody below whom he might hurt - and closed the window, happy to have put an end to all that human suffering.

--

Actually, that's not true. Apart from anything else, I don't work in Canary Wharf (but then you knew I was mendacious if you've troubled to read my profile)... But if your response was that I should have tried to find other ways to help, you could be right.

But that is what, in effect, Brook, bpas and the others do. They seek out women in a state of distress, normally for complex reasons, and offer them a single way out, which certainly does not resolve all their problems (and incidentally involves the taking of a human life) - moreover they charge a fee for it, either to the woman or the tax-payer. And doubtless, many of them truly believe they are helping. And of course, they campaign...

But the mere fact that at a moment in time someone thinks that he wants to commit suicide, or that she wants an abortion, does not mean that the humane response is to agree that is the best solution and facilitate it.

We know in the case of suicidal people that more often than not they change their mind with time and support. But the abortion industry does not want women to take time. There are medical reasons for that - but also psychological ones... and business ones.

Decisions taken under the duress of stress and others' influence, and without due reflection and support are often those which haunt us...

Lots of prayers required just now as the abortion providers step up their campaign against the pro-life camp.