STATEMENT by DR. IAN BROWN
Within the space of a few days our government has executed a most wicked pincer movement against human life.
On Tuesday 17th June 2025, MPs in England and Wales voted overwhelmingly – and mercilessly – (379 to 137) to pass an amendment decriminalising abortion at any stage of pregnancy and protecting women from prosecution should they kill the child in their womb at any point right up to just before the moment of its birth.
On Friday of the same week, the same Parliament voted – admittedly with a much narrower margin, but no less maliciously – by 314 votes to 291 in support of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.
Our nation once encouraged, showcased and took profound pleasure in the excellent work of philanthropists, doctors and missionaries who travelled to the ends of the earth and expended every effort in order to preserve human life. Examples include the majestic work of William Wilberforce in our own Parliament to bring to an end the horrors of slavery in many parts of the globe; the compassionate labours of missionary William Carey to secure the outlawing of the evil practice of Suttee in India; the diligence of the ’Lady with the Lamp’ Florence Nightingale in organising the kind of care for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War that significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards – before returning to her homeland to lay the foundation of professional nursing care.
Tragically, many of our politicians in this twenty-first century may no longer wear the mantle of the preservers of life, but will now bear the responsibility and infamy of two votes that have, at one end of the spectrum of human life, consigned many children in the womb to death before they can be born and, at the other, facilitated the more rapid exit of persons into God’s eternity.
In a land that once prided itself in its care for the unborn and the newborn and was the first to provide palliative care and hospices, life is no longer so highly valued.
The Reformer John Calvin once observed, “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.”
This judgment is described in Jeremiah 23:19-20: “Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.”
May God have mercy upon us in these latter days on account of our gross wickedness.
History bears witness to the fact that other nations have been swept into oblivion on account of much lesser sins than what we have committed this week.
Dr. Ian Brown
Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
Minister of Martyrs Memorial FPC
