Pro life groups protested outside the U.K. Houses of Parliament on May 15 as members of parliament debated decriminalising abortion. One of the protestors at the event was Christian Hacking, 34, the public engagement officer for the Centre for Bio Ethical Reform UK.
In an exclusive interview with Christian Daily International, Hacking, who is a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ, shares about what motivates him to protest against abortion and talks about how he was once hauled into a police van for praying outside an abortion clinic.
Hacking became concerned about abortion as a student at Leeds University when he was given a leaflet by a friend showing him what abortion really looked like.
“I had been brought up thinking it was just a medical procedure but then I saw a picture of an unborn baby on a glove and I had no idea before that an aborted baby was an actual human being. And that was when my eyes were opened.”
Hacking put the leaflet away but then four years later, when recovering from a spinal injury, he became interested again when Ireland voted to allow the killing of unborn children through abortion in 2018.
“I realized I couldn’t look away,” he said. He began volunteering with CBR UK, a pro life group, then took on leadership of the London team, helping to run displays on the realities of abortion outside GP medical surgeries before getting his current full time role engaging with the public for the Centre for Bio Ethical Reform UK.
Hacking said that to be truly evangelical meant to be “activistic” and lamented that, in his opinion about abortion, “lots of evangelicals are largely silent on this injustice.”
The experience of being arrested for praying, by his own admission “extravagantly”, outside an abortion facility in August 2019 surprised Hacking.
He had gone in a private capacity outside an abortion clinic in Ealing, London, to pray. He said that antisocial behavior laws were enforced in the buffer zone area there, normally reserved for “lager louts or dogs defecating” but were applied to him instead for simply talking to Jesus.
“To be clear, this wasn’t orchestrated, it was something I did in my own time. I went to visit it and my heart broke – I was outraged at the time. I prayed inside the buffer zone for an hour, then the police were called.
“I was praying out loud on my knees, praying to be heard. Some people accessing the clinic took offense at my presence.
“The clinic manager, incidentally wearing a cross necklace, informed the police and arranged for my removal.”
A fellow prayer warrior decided to leave the scene but Hacking “carried on” crying out to God outside the abortion clinic.
“And then I got arrested but because of the uniqueness of the event, the gentleman arresting me forgot to caution me. So the case fell apart before it went to trial.
“He forgot to caution me, lifting me out of the zone in a police van and then saying, ‘Whatever you say may be used against you.’ But all the evidence was disqualified as the caution had not been given inside the buffer zone.”
Police spared Hacking the indignity of a criminal record and there was no follow-up. “I got interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about the incident and since then they have brought in other safe access zones and another national law banning prayers outside every facility in the country.”
A key area of interest for Hacking has been profits made by abortion facility providers for killing babies. He is particularly concerned to know “what they do with the profits.”
“They spread their profits to meet legal thresholds and inevitably they have earned huge amounts of money with DIY abortion, employing staff and running clinics. But now one person can take a call, a healthcare professional or a nurse, then the abortion poison pills get posted out. And now women are being discharged once the pills are posted out with no follow up. So any complications the women subsequently experience are not getting back to the abortion provider.
“Our argument is that this is a catastrophe for women’s health and by posting these pills out, the abortion providers are cashing in.”
A Freedom of Information survey found that one in 17 women taking these pills need hospital treatment as a result, according to Hacking.
“All the trauma unleashed through this, isn’t being captured and one of the reasons this data isn’t collected is that there are no National Health Service numbers on abortion procedures. So there is no review of the danger linking abortion to future support needed such as psychological help, or breast cancer risks.”
With a General Election looming in Britain on July 4, Hacking believes it is only a matter of time before abortion becomes a central issue in elections. He refers to Old Testament laws valuing the sanctity of life, such as God’s commands to Noah when he came out of the ark, and the commandment “if you shed blood, your blood will be shed.” [Genesis 9:6]
“Life is precious,” said Hacking, “and the most basic legal codes are about protecting people and stopping people killing people. Abortion is the intentional killing of innocent human beings and it is grievous in God’s sight. So it is only a matter of time before this becomes a bigger issue in political elections.”
A Pew Research Center report published on May 15 said there remained a high level of support for the killing of the unborn across Europe.
“In Europe, there is widespread agreement that abortion should be legal,” said the report. “In nearly every European country surveyed, at least 75% of adults hold this view, including roughly 25% or more who say it should be legal in all cases.”
Swedes stood out as being particularly supportive of the killings with 95% saying it should be legal, including 66 percent supporting abortion “in all cases.” Poland is at the opposite end of the spectrum with 56 percent saying “abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”
“Majorities in most of the 27 places around the world that Pew Research Center surveyed in 2023 and 2024 say abortion should be legal in all or most cases,” said the Pew report. “But attitudes differ widely – even within places. Religiously unaffiliated adults, people on the ideological left and women, are more likely to support legal abortion in many places.”
Looking at the landscape in Europe, Hacking says that generally speaking abortions are kept to 12 weeks except in extreme cases. He laments France putting abortion into the country’s constitution but Italy and Poland “seem to be going the other way”
Meanwhile the UK “has a rich history of doing awful things but repenting quicker than other nations so I have hope but it can go either way.” He is wary of the British Labour Party, currently leading the polls for the forthcoming General Election, putting the decriminalization of killing children through abortion in its manifesto. “It’s not looking good in the short term.”
Even so, Hacking turns to God for all the answers as the debate about abortion heats up and gets more difficult for pro-life Christians.
“My hope is not in politics but in Christians being salt and light,” Hacking said. “It is undeniable that more Christians will be arrested in the UK if Labour comes to power.
“Christians will find themselves increasingly in the firing line in all sorts of matters, not only abortion but conversion therapy, and sexuality, and we should welcome persecution as a means to help us shed some [spiritual] pounds.”
