Abortion Act `does not change the Law of God'

CATHOLICS should support the recommendations of the Select Committee on Abortion because they will eliminate some outstanding abuses of the present Abortion Act and save the lives of so many of the unborn.
While supporting the Select Committee's recommendations, the Bishops strongly reaffirmed the principle that all direct abortion is wrong.
"The fact that it is not a crime in the law of the land does not change the Law of God," they said.
The Bishops hope that the recommendations, which will be debated in Parliament in November, will help to allay some of the widespread concern and dismay over the working of the Abortion Act.
Nevertheless, they said that only "the complete repeal of the Act will safeguard the principle that no law can justify taking the life of the innocent, born or unborn."
The Select Committee was set up last February after the introduction of a private memher's Rill on abortion reform by James White. MP for Glasgow Pollok.
The 15 recommendations of the Committee, which net for six months and heard evidence from more than 400 organisations and individuals, included the reduction of the time in which abortion is permissible from 28 to 20 weeks after conception.
The Committee also recommended that pregnancy advice bureaux and referral agencies should be licensed, and that the fine for breaking the Abortion Law should be increased to £1,000.
The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, which campaigns for the repeal of the Abortion Act, will hold rallies in Bradford, Birmingham, Chelmsford, Bristol, and Glasgow on Sunday, November 7.
`Yard by yard struggle': Every legal and constitutional weapon will be used in Parliament in the coming months to persuade the Government to find time for a debate on the rcpurl of the Select Committee on Abortion, Mr Andrew Bowden, MP, told a crowded public meeting in Westminster on Monday.
The meeting, chaired by Paul Cavadino, was organised by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children to launch "Call for Action," a nationwide campaign to urge the Government to introduce legislation to correct ahuses of the Abortion Law and to implement the recommendations published in July by the Select Committee on Abortion.
SPUC is also urging MPs to vote for the grounds for abortion to be restricted to prevent abortion on demand.
The lobbying of MPs has already been organised in over 400 constituencies throughout the country. Besides the five regional rallies on November 7, there will be a mass march and meeting in Cardiff on Sunday, October 31.
In his speech Mr Bowden urged those who opposed abortion not to divide. No easy road to reversal of the 1967 Act lay open. A "yard by yard struggle" was inevitable.