The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have expressed their sadness at the record abortion figures for 2021 released last week, and called for reflection on the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
The Department for Health and Social Care recorded 214,869 abortions in England and Wales last year, 4,000 more than in 2020.
Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Westminster and lead on life issues for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said that the figures “disturb our consciences and prompt us to ask critical questions of our society”.
Women in the most deprived areas were more than twice as likely to have an abortion as women in the least deprived parts of the country, the report found. More than 3,000 abortions were on the grounds of disability, including 859 cases of Down’s syndrome.
Commenting on the overturning of Roe v Wade, Bishop Sherrington said it was “a moment that calls for the building of a culture of life and welcome where all are recognised and treated as a gift”. He called for a reduced upper time limit to abortions and a review of laws permitting abortion up to term in cases of disability.
Speaking to Christian Concern, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, welcomed the US ruling and said “it must now become a victory for the value of human life”.
In Scotland, where the first minister Nicola Sturgeon this week convened a national summit on abortion, the Catholic bishops issued a statement asserting that “to take life from the unborn, no matter how insignificant in size, cannot be right”.
“The rights of a women and the compassion and support due to her, and the circumstances of her pregnancy, are naturally of great concern to us, but an unborn life, once taken, cannot be restored,” they said.
“No matter what position we take, this belief in the profound importance of the issue is shared by us all. It is incumbent on us therefore to accept that deeply held and divergent opinions are at stake and the conflict which arises from this should be handled with respect and civility.”
The Scottish government is expected to support a bill to introduce 150 metre exclusion zones around abortion clinics. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said it would defend the right to pray outside clinics.
The bishops concluded: “If we are to be the caring and compassionate society we aspire to be, upholding sanctity and dignity of all human life must be the foundational principle on which that aspiration rests.”
Loading ...
