Forty years after the Abortion Act came into effect, terminations in Britain are running at 450 a day.

Opponents of the legislation say the scale of abortion is reason enough to introduce substantial restrictions.

But as the issue seems about to become more political, pro-choice activists say the law should actually be relaxed.

A coalition of anti-abortion campaigners gathered outside Parliament to focus attention on what they say is the toll taken by the Abortion Act.

Since 1967 the yearly rate of abortion has multiplied – from 22,000 in 1968 to 193,000 last year. More than a fifth of pregnancies end that way.

More than a fifth. Shame.

This is puzzling, from Driffield Today:

A COURT has granted scientists permission to exhume the body of a Sledmere aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago from one of the world’s deadliest viruses.

Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet. Sir Mark Sykes, landowner, politician and diplomat died in France in 1919 of the Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people worldwide. He was just 39. -Source and Image Source: Driffield Today.

What they’re looking to obtain is DNA of the final stages of the pandemic flu, which might help them eliminate a modern pandemic. Sir Mark’s remains might help them achieve that lofty aspiration, and add to the major breakthroughs made by American scientists last year.

This is of particular note (from Wikipedia which is fast approaching in my estimation an area of gossip with a hive mentality):

The Spanish Flu itself became a human infection by a mutation of an aviary virus nowadays called H1N1. There are only 5 other extant samples of the Spanish Flu and none of the other remains from which they come are as well preserved as Sir Mark’s body is expected to be.

So, if I’m not mistaken, and I could be, are we not speaking of Sir Mark’s remains helping stop the bird flu pandemic that is being sold around the world as another disaster we should turn to governments and the EU to solve?

One of the world’s top specialists in viruses, Professor John Oxford, believes Sir Mark was buried in a lead or lead-lined coffin. His grave is pictured above at Sledmere. This unique burial situation might have preserved the virus, and the beeb’s Inside Out programme tracked down records of Sir Mark’s funeral and other archived documents to help out. This sleuthing helped the medical team track down more from St Barts and the Royal London Hospitals. In the weeks before his death, Sir Mark was working for the British government in the Middle East. It is thought that he contracted the virus on somewhere along the sail back to the UK from Syria via London. Just a few days later, he died in a Parisian hotel. Tipped a future Prime Minister, Sir Mark played a role in drawing the national boundaries of the Middle East that still exist today.

Sir Mark’s surviving relatives, his grandchildren, gave their permission for exhumation.

Christopher Simon Sykes, an author, said: “We all agreed it is a very good thing and it should go ahead. It is rather fascinating that maybe even as a corpse he may be helping others as it were.”

The Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Health and Safety Executive will have to vet plans for the exhumation, which has been authorised by a church court covering the Diocese of York.

Professor Oxford: “If we can get samples that will be wonderful for my team and science in general.

“It could help us answer some very important questions.
“We’re on the verge of the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century and we think Sir Mark can help us.”

Inside Out editor, Ian Cundall, said: “We were glad to put our researchers’ skills to such a useful purpose.

“We often investigate incidents that occurred a long time ago but they rarely represent such an immediate potential benefit.”

The story will be featured on the Inside Out programme on BBC1 in Yorkshire today at 7.30pm.

I missed it, did anyone catch it?

I’d be interested to hear what they have to say about Sir Mark solving this impending disaster.

After all, Sir Mark, according to Wikipedia, “will always be associated with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, drawn up while the war was in progress, regarding the apportionment of postwar spheres of interest in the Ottoman Empire to Britain, France and Russia.”

*cough*