THE RECORD Victorian Parliament threatens Catholic workers, hospitals
“Be indefatigable in your purpose and with undaunted spirit resist iniquity and try to conquer evil with good, having before your eyes the reward of those who combat for Christ.”
-Bishop Matthew Gibney
the Parish. the Nation. the World.
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Western Australia’s award-winning Catholic newspaper since 1874 - Wednesday October 15 2008
Abortion law leaves no room for conscience; Catholic healthcare workers in Victoria are now bound by law to cooperate in some aspects of abortion
■ By Anthony Barich
THE president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has warned that the future of Catholic social services is now in doubt after the Abortion Law Reform Bill was approved by the Victorian Parliament on October 10. The Bill passed through Victoria’s Upper House by 23 votes to 17 and allows babies to be aborted up to 24 weeks gestation, after which a mother will need the consent of two doctors, the second of whom does not need to assess the woman. Opponents of the Bill said they feared that it will make criminals of medical practitioners who have a conscientious objection to abortion, as it requires them to refer patients on to another practitioner who has no such objection. ACBC president Archbishop Philip Wilson said the Bill’s underlying principles “are a threat to the Catholic Church’s operations” across the board, including healthcare, education and welfare services “where we’re deeply involved”. “We’re put in a position where we are unable to operate according to our conscientious position in these matters,” he said. Queensland Bioethics Centre director Ray Campbell also told the Catholic Leader that a push for similar laws was likely in other Australian states, forcing Catholic hospitals to disobey the law as a flow on from proposed changes to abortion laws in Victoria. Prior to the Victoria vote, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said that maternity and emergency wards in Catholic hospitals would need to be shut down if the Bill passed, and called on “all people of good will’ to pray that the Bill does not pass. But after it did, Archbishop Hart said: “It is a betrayal of our shared humanity,
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New life: This is what motherhood and life are really all about, as mothers care for their babies in a Manila hospital. However, following the passing of Victoria’s abortion legislation, Catholic leaders in Australia are warning it could become a scene of the past in Catholic hosptials. The Victorian legislation forces doctors opposed to abortion to cooperate by referring pregnant women seeking an abortion to those who will provide it. Medical workers, including pharmacists, lose their conscientious right to refuse to participate in any activities associated with abortion. Even though abortion laws in other states are abominable, the Victorian legislation goes further in its dismissal of freedom of conscience for medical workers. PHOTO: CNS/ CHERYL RAVELO, REUTERS
a betrayal of women, a betrayal of the innocent unborn child that would ease the way to the destruction of 20,000 unborn children annually (in Victoria),” he told Melbourne’s Herald-
Sun newspaper. As a result of Archbishop Hart’s call for prayer prior to the vote, Archbishop Wilson immediately wrote to all Australian bishops and asked that all dioceses follow the pat-
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tern, “as we need to make a national response in prayer”. Archbishop Wilson said he did not make a public statement on the issue as Archbishop Hart and his team had dealt with
the arguments well and that “he speaks for all of us (bishops)”, as the bishops all back the Melbourne prelate. When asked whether the Victorian Law
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