¡GLE GOES OPPOSE THE to start The impression wrong made very announcement.
between to conceive Church in explicitly reactionary Archbishops jointly that abortion, stances, is an "evl The SO Catholic Church gives the misleading impression that it is about to change, about playing a more progressive role in society.
is always A few weeks ago the Pope controyersial He said that married people who are not actually planning - as long as they love each other and as long as previous they don't use contraception -is no longer a sin! Well, it's a But last week the Catholic political and intervention into the foetus! the eurrent fight around the Corrie anti-abortion Bill. The In seven British Roman Catholic declared in all circumnot a light matter for the religious.
Catholic Church has
made no secret of its opposition was not simply a restatement of known policy. I was timed to get the maximum publicity just before the final reading of the Corrie Bill in Parliament.
Almost as shocking as what these Archbishops actually say is the fact that the 'liberal' - Guardran gare them nearly a half a page to explain their case without a word of the counter The archbishops' statement is in fact a liberalisation of their position, They say that if a pregnant woman's life is in danger doctors may situation though they had two patients. • Previouer the doctor had fo think of only one life - that of other respects the statement - Abortion and the Right to Live - just reiterates the Church's traditional, and utterly mysoginist approach. If a woman is raped 'the newlyconceived child cannot rightly be made to suffer the penalty of the woman'.
To abort a deformed foetus. say the archbishops, , is to kill another human on the basis it would be 'better off dead' judgement we have no right to make.
Of course, it hangs on the fact that they believe life is a "question of 'souls" rather than •sometbing that's socially -defined. But even taking this « into account it is remarkable how little the real life of the woman is considered compared to the incredible concern for the abstract and potential life of the foetus.
Clearly the Catholic Church determined to throw weight behind the Corrie Bill. But this Church that bans contraception, réfuses to allow women to become priests, and above all continues the cult of the holy nuclear family bas built up a huge debt of outstanding fury among women. They won't get away with it forever.