A century from now, we will be appalled that we allowed abortions at all

Rod Liddle says the Commons vote securing the 24-week limit is no more than a craven politician’s fudge, designed to postpone the day when the law of the land finally catches up with the indisputable findings of science

An awful lot of people we know are being laid off at the moment, or finding their incomes substantially decreased. This is the credit crunch, the cusp of a recession and its impact was felt first and most onerously upon those hard-working and resourceful young men in the City’s banking institutions. Many are looking to ship out and find jobs elsewhere; some, suddenly stricken with the need to feel socially useful, are downsizing into strange occupations such as teaching. But others just want to carry on making money and are looking for an industry which is unlikely to be affected by the current financial crisis. But what, exactly, should it be?

The clear answer is that they should all retrain as abortionists, the abrupt termination of pregnancies being one of Britain’s most vibrant growth industries. There were a total of 193,737 abortions carried out in Britain in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available. That’s a tenfold increase on the number carried out in 1968, the first full year for which abortions were deemed legal by the state. Lately the yearly rate of increase has hovered at around 4 per cent, comfortably above the rate of inflation. It is likely to rise still more sharply in future years as Britain’s women fully embrace the notion that an unconfined number of sexual partners is the desirable norm, preferably with the act of love effected while pissed out of their skulls on Bacardi Breezers, down a fairly quiet back alley in between Budgens and that cheap, if noxious, halal fried chicken emporium.