News,

The number of abortions in Scotland was the highest ever last year with more than 13,700 performed, nearly four percent more than in 2006. A quarter of abortions were repeats and terminations on under-16s rose. The Catholic church said the news was disheartening and the numbers "beyond the imagination". It blamed value-free sex education. [Daily Express, 28 May] Ian Murray of SPUC Scotland said: "Either our sexual health policies don't teach women anything about their fertility, or [human] life in Scotland has been reduced to a commodity that can be disposed [of] to suit the convenience of others. The reality is these statistics refer to human lives - both the babies lost and the women whose lives will be scarred by their decision forever." [Scotsman, 28 May] The Archbishop of Glasgow has defended the Catholic church from a newspaper's accusation that it has stifled debate on abortion. Most Rev Mario Conti points out that the church has often warned that the country's sexual health strategy would fail if it just taught safe sex and not responsibility. He writes: "I suppose for repeating this I will be called a 'conservative cleric', but I cannot see why that should make me in any way responsible for closing down the debate." The church had worked with SPUC to encourage political debate, as well as supporting agencies which helped those affected by unwanted pregnancy. The church had also produced material about relationships for use in all types of school. [Herald, 29 May]

In the aftermath of UK parliamentary votes on abortion and embryology, the Archbishop of Westminster has repeated his call for a bioethics commission. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor praised the quality of the House of Commons debate and said a commission would "serve the common good simply through continuing dialogue and exploration." Ethics needed to keep pace with science. The church did not impose her views and what mattered was: "the appeal to reason and intellectual argument ...". The Cardinal observed: "The idea of 'viability', prominent in the debate, is a concept dependent on the availability of resources and technology; not one that is able to found a moral distinction between a life that is worth our respect and protection and one that is not." [Telegraph, 23 May]

It is suggested that a senior minister will defy her party and abstain from voting on the government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Mrs Ruth Kelly MP, secretary of state for transport, will reportedly not oppose the measure and, thus, may not need to resign her portfolio. [Telegraph, 23 May] Mr Joe Benton MP has protested that his governing Labour party is requiring its parliamentarians to vote for the final version of the bill, calling it hypocrisy. He says he will disobey. Dr Helen Watt, director of the British and Irish Catholic bishops' bioethical centre, says electors should pay more attention to MPs' voting on life-issues than to party-affiliation. [Catholic News Agency, 22 May] A Conservative MP wants his party to commit to reviewing abortion law in the light of medical advances. Mr Mark Pritchard, MP for the Wrekin, is not opposed to abortion or IVF but cites opinion polls which suggest public support for a lower gestational limit. [Birmingham Post, 23 May] John Smeaton of SPUC warns against playing abortion party politics. [SPUC director's blog, 27 May]

The Irish Family Planning Association has disputed the Royal College of Psychiatrists' assertion that abortion can cause trauma in women. Mr Niall Behan, chief executive, was concerned that it played into pro-life campaigners' hands. Professor Mary Boyle, emeritus professor of psychology at East London University, England, is quoted as also objecting to the college's findings, though she apparently concedes that a few women do suffer mentally. [Sunday Business Post, 25 May] John Smeaton said: "As far as we know, no-one is saying that all women who have abortions are traumatised. To admit that some women are badly affected is to acknowledge that there can be problems. Abortion supporters' enthusiasm for promoting the practice can lead to their being in denial about the dangers. This is a disservice to women."

The Catholic church has changed its teaching on when human life starts, according to the head of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Professor Lisa Jardine, an historian, cites St Augustine of Hippo as teaching that humanity started when a child was first felt to be moving, and implies that other Christian and Abrahamic faiths draw the line at 14 days. She writes: "only 21st-century Catholicism has this problem" and hopes the church will change its policy. [Guardian, 28 May] Anthony Ozimic of SPUC said: "The Catholic church and its leading authorities, from the earliest times to today, have always forbidden the destruction of the fruits of conception. Differences of opinion among theologians before the mid-19th century related not to embryo destruction (which was always forbidden by the church), but at which stage of development the embryo possessed a soul and whether lighter or harsher penalties should be applied for embryo destruction before and after the soul's presence. Theologians of the Middle Ages could only use the science available to them at the time, derived from Aristotle, which suggested that the embryo was not sufficiently developed enough to possess a soul until some weeks after conception. It was only in the mid-19th century and advances in embryology that scientists could be sure about the physical evidence of how human life begins - at fertilisation. The Catholic church therefore changed, not its teaching on the wrongness of embryo destruction, but its penalties for embryo destruction, to be equal from fertilisation onwards."

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, 2018