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Cardinal Urges Legislators to Vote Against Abortion On Demand

EDINGBURGH, Scotland, JULY 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The United Kingdom's abortion statistics are a "badge of shame" for the nation, Cardinal Keith O’Brien told Britain's 646 parliamentarians in a letter.

The archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh urged the legislators in letters sent this week to vote against proposed amendments to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill that would effectively establish abortion on demand.

The amendments would permit abortion with the approval of only one doctor, and would also permit nurses and midwives to perform abortions.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, approved in May, allows for the creation of human-animal hybrids, the creation of "savior siblings," legislates that fathers are not a necessary prerequisite for seeking in vitro fertilization, and sets the upper limit for abortions at 24 weeks of gestation.

“We already have a shamefully high level of abortions in the United Kingdom,” wrote the cardinal, who is also the president of the bishops' conference of Scotland.

Cardinal O'Brien said the amendments would only “make early abortion more readily available.”

“We face the prospect of making the United Kingdom more ubiquitous in Europe for its barbarity in dealing with the unborn, he said. "Our spiraling abortion statistics are already a badge of shame for our nation.

“Now the ideologues would have us remove what little restraint there is in relation to abortion.”