'	Social & Moral Issues Abortion

CATHOLIC BISHOPS CALL TO ACTION ON ABORTION BILL 13 August 2004 "The Catholic Church calls on all catholic medical personnel to insist on their constitutional rights, respecting their freedom of conscience and to refuse to cooperate in the performance of abortions", said the Bishops in their statement at the end of their assembly in Mariannhill today. The right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights on which society is based. Abortion as a direct attack on this most basic right can never be justified even by the intention of protecting or promoting any other right or value. The current parliamentary debate on Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill challenges us once more to uphold the sanctity of human life from conception until death, and to condemn abortion as an act gravely contrary to the law of God. We are furthermore deeply disturbed by the proposal that the new amendment bill seeks to extend to nurses the right to destroy innocent life through even more freely available abortions. We note with great sadness that 330 000 innocent human lives have been destroyed since the Abortion Act came into operation in 1997. There is no doubt that the aim of the proposed amendment is to increase the number of abortions in our country and as a Church we deplore this onslaught on the lives of the unborn. We are deeply aware of the great damage caused to women by abortion since they had already bonded as mothers with their unborn babies. The Church wishes to help them in coping with their loss and grief. The Church will continue to use its own resources to counsel, to protect and to care for unmarried mothers and other women in pregnancy crisis and situations of abuse. "How can the country possibly regenerate its moral fibre if it continues to widen and facilitate the destruction of unborn life?", ask the Catholic Bishops. Father Mathibela Sebothoma Media & Communications Officer Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) PO Box 941 Pretoria 0001 Phone: 012 323 6458 Fax: 012 326 6218 Cell: 082 229 4614 --------------------------------------------------------------- Source: ChristianView Network Tel/fax: +2721 6854500 Web: www.ChristianView.org _______________________________________________ Please read our disclaimer   Back to Social Issues