View Catholic Bishops Reply :  View  in PDF   (CBC replied on 27 June 2005)

Rev Fr Summersgill, Secretary to the Catholic Bishops Conference, replied by confirming the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church and confirmed the stance on abortion expressed by the Catholic Bishops Conference in their document Cherishing Life.

Fr Summergill's letter states that to procure abortion, 'willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to moral law', and that, those who procure abortion 'incur the penalty of excommunication'.

In United for Life's reply to the Catholic Bishops Conference we claimed the following:

'TheFreeDictionary.com definition of 'procure' is: to secure, obtain, cater, ply, provide, supply.  United for Life believes that procuring abortion takes many forms of activity in today's world.  Many organisations work nationally and/or internationally lobbying governments (especially their health, education and legal departments), lobbying the EU and the UN, calling for greater access to abortion and the elimination of so called 'unsafe abortion', often under the guise of 'reproductive health' and gender issues.  Many organisations are involved either directly or indirectly in education for choice.  In addition, most forms of contraception work by preventing an embryo from implanting in the womb and are therefore abortifacient.

United for Life therefore argues that those who procure abortion include:

• Those who seek or work to maintain pro-abortion legislation
• Those who search for abortion provision for themselves or for others
• Those who perform or help facilitate abortion
• Those who give non-directive pregnancy counselling with abortion as an option among many
• Those who seek to eliminate 'unsafe abortion' to make abortion both 'safe' and legal
• Those who support in policy, statement, lobby or with funds, pro-abortion and/or pro-contraceptive activities or work with partners who do so'

United for Life then asked:

'Does the Catholic Bishops Conference agree that procuring abortion takes many forms of activity in today's world including those listed in this letter?'

To date, United for Life awaits an answer to this question.

United for Life urges the Catholic Bishops Conference of England & Wales, any partner organisations and all members of the Catholic community, to be committed to implementing in full the UDHRs and the Declaration on the Right of the Child in regard to the unborn by supporting and working to gain legal protection for children before as well as after birth?

No group of humans can be treated as 'non-persons' and this includes the disabled, the elderly, slaves, Jews, the unborn or any other group, including human embryos.  Thus, no excuse can be made to exclude any group of humans from equal protection under law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims these Rights as 'a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations' and that 'every individual and every organ of society ...shall strive ...to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance ...among the peoples of Member States.'  It is therefore United for Life's duty to call upon the Catholic Bishops Conference of England & Wales, any partner organisations and all members of the Catholic community, to help promote legal protection for children before as well as after birth.

Read :  How Abortion Violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.