Cardinal to Brit PM: Time has come to reopen abortion debate
Jun 21, 2006
Cardinal Keith O'Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, has told British Prime Minster Tony Blair that the time had come for a public and parliamentary debate about abortion, said the cardinal's spokesman.
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com, 6/19/2006) LONDON – Blair responded to the cardinal by admitting there were new grounds to reopen the 1967 Abortion Act, including "some troubling issues" surrounding the age that babies could survive independently outside the mother's womb, the spokesman, Peter Kearney, said June 19.
However, the prime minister, who has voted in favor of abortion throughout his career, stopped short of giving any promises to the cardinal, Kearney added.
Under the act, abortion is permitted with the consent of two doctors up to the 24th week of pregnancy, the limit at which a fetus was said to be able to survive if born. Abortion up to birth is permitted for babies with serious handicaps.
A study of premature babies conducted last year by the University College Hospital, London, found that most born at 23 or 24 weeks gestation survived. Figures also revealed that about 50 babies each year survive botched abortions in Great Britain.
Catholic leaders and some pro-life groups, politicians and newspapers have been calling to reduce the timeframe that an abortion is permitted, claiming the support of opinion polls which consistently show that the British public increasingly believes late abortion is cruel.
The day after the June 15 meeting between Cardinal O'Brien and Blair, a motion was put forward in the House of Commons by Labor Party legislator Geraldine Smith asking the government to set up a committee to "consider the scientific, medical and social changes in relation to abortion that have taken place since 1967, with a view to presenting options for new legislation."
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, was to request a review of the law June 21 when he meets with Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
Meanwhile, during his three-day visit to London Cardinal O'Brien also warned politicians about the dangers to religious freedom posed by the 2006 Equality Act, which will be enacted in October.
The act was introduced to ban discrimination on the grounds of sexuality in the provision of goods and services. It means, for example, that hotel owners would no longer have the right to deny a double room to gay couples.
During a Mass in the House of Commons June 14, Cardinal O'Brien said the law constituted a "threat to freedom of conscience" and would "force people of faith to approve and cooperate with values that they can never in conscience accept."
Cardinal to Brit PM: Time has come to reopen abortion debate