New PM urged to conduct urgent abortion law review

BY ANABEL INGE
A NION11-1 after he angered many commentators by comparing Scotland's abortion rate to "two Dunblane massacres a day" Cardinal Keith O'Brien has issued a direct plea to the Prime Minister to consider an urgent review of Britain's abortion laws.
Reflecting on the response he received for the comments he made on the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act. the cardinal expressed his hope that Gordon Brown would stray where his predecessor, Tony Blair, did not, and mount a nationwide review considering the case for reducing the abortion time limit.
Writing for the Scotsman the cardinal said that he put pressure on Mr Blair to consider such a review in a private meeting last year, but that despite the former Prime Minister's concession that "there was a strong argument for a time limit reduction... sadly, he failed to act".
Mr Brown, Cardinal O'Brien continued, is "a man of principle and deeply held moral convictions" who has "seen the suffering caused by poverty and malnutrition in many developing countries and has sought to persuade the decision makers of the developed world in forums like the G8 gatherings to respond to the desperate need of our fellow human beings".
The spiritual leader of Scotland's 750,000 Catholics went on to express his hope that the Prime Minister would extend his desire to save and protect human life to the sphere of the unborn. "It is unarguable that, from conception onwards, human life has begun," he said.