Malcolm Mann: Towards a culture of life - Wilberforce and the pro-life movement

Inspired by the new biography of Wilberforce by William Hague, Malcolm Mann, Catholic writer of the Cally's Kitchen blog, looks at the parallels between Wilberforce's mission and the modern pro-life movement.

2007 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade within the British Empire. The campaign to end it was fought on many fronts, but most critically, in the House of Commons. William Hague’s new biography of William Wilberforce, who led the parliamentary campaign, is therefore a timely reminder of what this remarkable man did for his country, and indeed, for the good of Mankind. Wilberforce died in 1833 but his spirit remains alive today in the pro-life movement. I would like here to outline some of the parallels between Wilberforce and his heirs.

William Wilberforce regarded his mission to end the slave trade as God given. He understood that in the eyes of God all Men were Men. The pro-life movement follows and indeed builds upon this belief, taking as it does the definition of what constitutes a human being right to the moment of conception.