Smith laments tragedy of easy abortion

A senior bishop has written to the Health Secretary to describe the tragedy that abortion had now become a “routine medical procedure”, writes Liz Dodd.

The Archbishop of Southwark, Peter Smith, called on Jeremy Hunt to lead a consultation on the way the act is being applied because safeguards in the 1967 Abortion Act had been eroded.

“Over time we have seen the gradual erosion of the moral significance of this profound decision, and the re-framing of it as a simple medical procedure,” he wrote.

He pointed out that the architects of the 1967 act believed that abortion was an action of such “moral weight” that it could only be permitted by two doctors acting in good faith. The archbishop writes that there is a “personal and social tragedy hidden within the law and the way it is currently applied”.

The archbishop explained that many people, while not necessarily agreeing with the Church’s opposition to abortion, are “deeply troubled by the current situation where we have 200,000 abortions a year.” He added: “No one reading the 1967 Act and the debates which led up to it could imagine that this is what even the advocates of legal abortion were seeking.” Archbishop Smith wrote to Mr Hunt in the context of the Department of Health’s consultation into the permission procedures for abortions in private hospitals.

The consultation, which ran from 22 November to 3 February, is due to refresh guidance that was put in place in July 2012, when approved private sector providers were cleared to carry out abortions for a two-year period.

The Anscombe Bioethics Centre formally responded to the consultation on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.