Catholics urged to write to MPs over abortion law

BY SIMON CALDWELL
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in England and Wales has launched a massive campaign to derail plans to make abortion easier.
More than 5,000 priests have received letters from their bishops urging them to mobilise the faithful against moves in Parliament to liberalise the 1967 Abortion Act.
In campaign packs sent out to churches, the bishops warn the country's 43 million Catholics that there is areal danger that attempts to liberalise the 40-year-old abortion laws will succeed.
Pro-abortion MPs have already drafted a series of amendments which include abortion on demand in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy through the abolition of the requirement of two doctors' signatures before an abortion can go ahead. They also want nurses to be allowed to carry out abortions and the 1967 Abortion Act extended to Northern Ireland.
It is likely that pro-life MPs will seek to lower the upper time-limit for abortions from 24 weeks.
The amendments will be introduced into the House of Commons when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill arrives there in February.
The bishops want Catholics to start lobbying MPs and Ministers now in an attempt to build up a substantial body of opposition to the proposals to liberalise the taw.
Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff said in a 13-page "parish resource pack" that pro-abortion activists often alleged that "opposition to abortion is purely a matter of religious belief and that religious belief should not be imposed on others".
"Some people argue that access to abortion ought to be recognised as a human right and as part of 'reproductive autonomy'," he said.
But the archbishop argued that with more than 200,000 abortions in England and Wales in 2006, the British public had begun to grow uneasy about the law, and that, according to opinion polls, an estimated 80 per cent of people wanted to see the figure reduced. He said: "When writing to MPs it may be better to stress what is accepted by most people in this country: that abortion is always tragic, that many women regret the decision, that it should be properly informed, and that we should be trying to make abortion rarer. Most people accept that the developing life in the womb should be given at least some legal recognition, especially when it begins to look like a baby."
Archbishop Smith said that abortion should never be seen as "equivalent to contraception".
Abortion on the grounds of disability, he said, involved a "double discrimination", adding that many disabled people found it offensive that this was a ground for abortion up to birth. "The law should not give the impression that disabled people are better off dead," said Archbishop Smith.
"Abortion is not a primarily a matter of religion and it is more than a matter of personal choice," he added. "Freedom of choice is not absolute."
The bishops also strongly object to provisions in the Bill to create animalhuman hybrids for experimentation and to create a class of legally fatherless children for lesbian couples who want to conceive by WE They have asked Catholics to call on their MPs to demand a free vote on the issues, which has so far been denied by Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister has signalled, however, that the Government will allow a free vote on abortion amendments because traditionally the issue has been seen as a matter of conscience.
Jim Dobbin, the chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said he welcomed the intervention of the Catholic Church.
"It is important that pressure is put on MPs because it is the only way to influence decisions made in the House of Commons," said the Labour MP for Middleton and Heywood.
"It is important that personal contact is made where constituents go along to their MPs as soon as possible and very politely register their concerns about this Bill. They may well ask their MPs to vote against it — that is the ultimate appeal from constituents to MPs."