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Urged to air pro-life views
Prelate appeals to law profession
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster has written a letter to lawyers encouraging the publication of pro-life arguments in Britain’s official barristers’ magazine, Counsel.
There has been a “grave erosion of the right to life through laws on abortion and embryo research,” said the cardinal. He suggested that the terms of the country’s newly enacted Human Rights Act should require the government and the courts to reconsider the laws relating to the protection of unborn children.
“Lawyers concerned to promote and defend a genuine human-rights culture will have opportunities through case law to explore and defend the foundational right to life,” the cardinal said. The European Charter, he said, now provided the opportunity for protecting human embryos, and medical advances demonstrated the injustice of “denying the unborn child the right to life from conception.”
Effort to stop “morning-after” pill
Pro-life group seeks court intervention
A British pro-life group is going to the High Court in an attempt to halt sales of the morning-after pill at pharmacies.
The Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) says that since the drug is in fact a method of early abortion, it should be subject to abortion legislation. Pharmacists who supply the Levonelle-2 pills, says the SPUC, could be committing a criminal offense under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act which prohibits the supply of any “poison or other noxious thing” with intent to cause miscarriage.
John Smeaton, SPUC’s national director, told the BBC, “It is not accurate to describe the morning-after pill as a contraceptive because it can cause the death of a newly conceived embryo.” He added, “It denies distinct and unique human individuals their right to life, and we cannot stand back and let this deception continue without raising our voices to defend the truth.”
An attempt has already been made in the House of Lords to prevent the medication from being sold over-the-counter. Conservative Baroness Young had argued that pharmacists were too busy to offer enough medical advice to women buying the pill. She said she was also concerned that girls under 16 years old were buying the pill. However, this attempt was defeated by peers.
On May 2, the High Court granted the SPUC permission to raise a full legal challenge. The decision does not mean a reversal of the current policy, but it allows for the case to be heard in full.
At a preliminary hearing, SPUC counsel Richard Gordon had argued that there was at least some merit in his argument that the purchase and sale of the “morning-after” pill amounted to “procuring a miscarriage,” a crime under the Offenses Against the Person Act. Gordon also argued that Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, had exceeded his powers by allowing the pill to be sold by pharmacists.
A spokesman for the Family Planning Association said the legal challenge was “extraordinary” and “an attack on women’s health.” The spokesman pointed out that the Attorney General had, in the 1980s, already ruled that “emergency contraception” did not constitute a form of abortion. But that issue will now be argued again in the courts.
Archbishop seeks tolerance
Worried by rhetoric against immigrants, homosexuals
Alarmed by the tone of some campaign rhetoric, the Archbishop of Birmingham called for greater tolerance for asylum seekers and homosexuals as England girded for general elections.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols criticized politicians for demanding tougher restrictions on applicants for political asylum. In an interview with the Birmingham Post, Archbishop Nichols called for a complete review of asylum legislation. “I believe the time is right for a review of asylum rights and relationships between countries,” he said. “It is difficult to manage an efficient asylum and refugee policy and it is unfortunate and regrettable that it seems to be entangled with the question of racial origins of people.”
He continued, “We must look for a system which works for people who genuinely come here in danger of life or persecution, and combine this with one which tries to stop those people who can be opportunistic.”
Turning to a separate issue, Archbishop Nichols also said homosexuals should be respected as “being made in the image and likeness of God” instead of being publicly condemned.