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News, weekly update, 5 to 13 July
SPUC has commented on government statistics
on abortions performed last year in England
and Wales, and has accused the government of threatening doctors with
punitive action if they do not make access to abortion easy. John Smeaton,
SPUC's national director, said: "The number of abortions on girls under 15
who were resident in England and Wales rose by nearly five percent from 1,034 in 2004 to 1,083 last year.
It is shameful that the government should promote secret abortions for girls
under the age of consent and insist that their parents aren't told. The
government is exposing under-age children to being abused. There is massive
government pressure to promote easy access to abortion and much pressure on
doctors to comply."
The number of Irish women seeking abortions
in the UK has fallen for the fifth year running. Figures show that last year
5,585 Irish addresses were given by women who attended abortion clinics in Britain.
This is a decrease from 6,217 in 2004. The number of teenagers providing Irish
addresses fell from 903 in 2001 to 655 in 2005. Critics of the statistics say
that it is possible that some Irish women provide the addresses of British
relatives or friends. [Breaking News, 5
July] The government-funded Crisis Pregnancy Agency has claimed that it has
caused this decline. Patrick Buckley of European Life Network in Dublin said: "We
welcome any reduction in the number of surgical abortions carried out on Irish
women. However, this does not take account of abortions carried out elsewhere
or the use of abortifacient birth control. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency has
continually failed to fulfil its mandate and its methods lead to more promiscuity
and more abortion. They are part of the problem, not the solution."
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
has rejected a lawsuit against Ireland
by an Irish woman who travelled to the UK for an
abortion. The woman, known as D, underwent an abortion in Britain
when she found out that one of her twin unborn children died in the womb and
the other had a genetic abnormality known as Edwards' syndrome. Abortion is
illegal in Ireland unless there is a serious risk to the life of the mother.
She sued the Irish government for insufficient access to abortion, human rights
violation and discrimination. The court said the woman did not try hard enough
to get an abortion in Ireland before going to the UK. [Life Site, 6 July]
Patrick Buckley of European Life Network said: "We welcome the ECHR rejection
of the D case. The case was clearly another speculative attempt to undermine
Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion. This action was callously used
by the Centre for Reproductive Rights as part of its global campaign to use
national and regional courts to further its agenda in trying to make abortion a
human right."
The Pope has said that every human being is created as part of the
divine providential plan. Speaking to 1.5 million people at a Mass in Spain,
which was the culmination of a conference to promote the traditional family,
Benedict XVI said, "Certainly we come from our parents and we are their children. But
we also come from God who has created us in his image and called us to be his
children. Consequently, at the origin of every human being there is not something
haphazard or chance, but a loving plan of God." He spoke out in support of the
traditional family describing it as "founded on indissoluble marriage between a
man and a woman." His words were met with frequent cheering from the crowds.
Spanish Prime Minister José Luiz RodrÃguez Zapatero did not attend the Mass. [The New York Times, 9 July]
Caroline Flint, the UK public health minister, has said that the
government will probably amend IVF law so that doctors who carry out
IVF treatment will no longer be required to consider the "need for a
father" when considering a request for IVF treatment. Ms Flint was
speaking to the Commons science and technology select committee. The
idea was to make it easier for single women and lesbians to have babies
by IVF. . [Telegraph, 13 July]
President Bush will use his veto against a bill to expand federal
funding of embryonic stem cell research if the Senate approves it,
according to a White House aide. Karl Rove told an American newspaper
that the legislation, which has already been passed by the House, is
expected to pass the Senate and that if this is the case, "the
president would, as he has previously said emphatically, veto
the...bill." Rove said, "We were all an embryo at one point, and we
ought to as a society be very careful about being callous about the
wanton destruction of embryos, of life." [The Guardian, 11 July]
To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2012
