Dan Millest

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// A FALSE WITNESS AGAINST ME // A motivation to study God’s word… @danmillest/note/c-231035681?r=4nops" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@danmillest/no…

I am deeply disturbed by last night’s debate and vote to decriminalise abortion. The biggest change to abortion law in fifty years passes the Commons after a two hour debate. It is a profound change that leaves the unborn child and women themselves extraordinarily vulnerable. I worry intensely about the unintended consequences of this. The combination of rushed amendments on decriminalisation and pills by post is very dangerous. A woman will now be able to end her pregnancy herself - at any stage including up to birth - without legal consequence. She will also have the means to do it - with tablets that should only be taken before a baby in the womb is at ten weeks gestation, available after a phone or video call with a medic. Dr Caroline Johnson tabled a perfectly sensible amendment, which I supported, to say that abortion pills should only be prescribed after a woman has seen a medic at a clinic - to verify that she is pregnant, at the correct stage and not being coerced (none of which can be established online). She set out the medical reality of an abortion. We should not underplay how extraordinarily distressing a thing it is to lose a baby for a woman - whether wanted or not - and the amplified risk now of that happening at home, alone, with the delivery of a viable child, exposes her to serious medical complications and psychological trauma. The law does not exist simply to punish but to deter. And in deterring, it protects the vulnerable. It being a criminal act for a mother to abort her child at any stage has for decades protected the unborn child but also the woman herself. With that gone, the ability to prosecute coercive or abusive partners is also undermined because the termination being encouraged by them no longer amounts to a criminal offence. All this is aside from any moral duty to the unborn child - something that was skirted over yesterday. Only six people got to speak on our benches. I was lucky that I even got three minutes to have a say. Others did not get called at all. I am grateful that there were some on the Labour benches with the courage to express their worries. Abortion votes are unwhipped so each MP votes according to their conscience not party policy. But Labour MPs - with their huge majority - voted overwhelmingly to decriminalise (291 to 25). 92 Conservatives voted against, with 4 in favour. 2 Lib Dems voted against, 63 in favour. Reform were 4 against and their leader didn’t vote. It is now over to the House of Lords, where I hope this proposal receives the scrutiny it failed to get in the Commons.

The moment @thurible went from “moderately supportive of a change in the law” to opposed:

@eddiejiao_obj @cmmnknwledge Brilliant. Yes please

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🎅🏽Santa’s Original Naughty List: Arius ❌ #HoHoHomoousios!

Psalm 14: FOOL’S DANCE #Psalms #BibleMemorisation #BibleMeditation

A rebuttal to Jonathan Dimbleby's emotional blackmail of the Lords for doing their job scrutinising the Assisted Suicide bill, from a doctor who has cared for thousands of dying people, including many with lfielong disability and many who died with motor neurone disease 🧵

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Lord have mercy

Lofi Psalm 12: THE GOOD ONES ARE GONE youtu.be/ZTdWU2MUiBo?si…

I gave a speech today in an empty chamber. It’s about the need for a Christian restoration.

youtu.be/LXiXDiaNl2c?si… #Psalm1 #LofiPsalm #LyricVideo

🚨 Amendment defeated. 254 v 233 MPs have voted to allow education campaigns for assisted dying. This could include targeting ‘low uptake’ groups and communities as they do in Australia with Aboriginal Communities. Further exemptions to be decided by Ministers. MPs specifically discussed leaflets in surgeries, posters in hospitals. No qualms from the XXX MPs.

@lukedsimmons @AJWTheology I wonder if it’s because song is a permission giver for lament, it coaches the emotions out of you, and we don’t have many word for word settings of the Psalms that resonate with our cultural sound. Here’s my attempt to fill that gap: open.spotify.com/playlist/5fuJD…

@AJWTheology Those through-lines are powerful. So many seem to still lack the heart permission structure to lament. What have you found helps people get there?

A powerful way of praying in the darkness of Psalm 88 is to reflect on its echoes of Joseph, Jeremiah, Jonah, Job and Jesus.

@talkChristianly It's so striking that he left. He literally left. Most leaders struggle to leave and make space for others.

I remain convinced that the church's under-appreciation of the Ascension is directly related to its under-appreciation of the distinctive ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Assisted Suicide Bill Committee has finished. My final speech here. This is not the Bill the public thought they were getting. It contradicts the NHS Act and the Hippocratic Oath. It's got worse, not better, in committee.

This man has been a hero. He's never met a slight or mendacity with anything other than equilibrium and stateman like calm. He has been a stalwart for the vulnerable, the marginalised and those not favoured by well funded lobbyists. We owe him a great debt.

This exchange in the committee this morning goes to the heart of the Leadbeater Bill. A new clause, amending the 1946 Act, will change the NHS to the National Health and Assisted Suicide Service. And no, it's not just part of end-of-life care.

It’s no good the sponsor of this wretched bill screwing her face up in disappointment, Sarah Olney MP is correct - this bill legislates for suicide for profit and an unregulated private market in death provision.

Amendments backed by the Govt, tabled at the last possible moment for the last day of the Assisted Suicide Bill Committee, create a power for ministers to change the founding purpose of the NHS. Giving patients lethal drugs wouldn't fit the original ('to secure improvement in the health of the people' - see below from the 1946 Act) so it would be added to this clause as another purpose.