Pro-abortionists join hands with pro-lifers as U.K. bishops condemn forced abortion

Jun 24, 2019 by Jill

by Jules Gomes, Church Militant:

Pro-life campaigners have petitioned Parliament after a British judge known for abortion activism ordered a Nigerian Catholic mother with a learning disability to terminate the life of her 22-week child against her will.

The mother suffers from “moderately severe” learning difficulties and a mood disorder and has “the mental age of 6-to-9-year-old.” She is in her twenties and is in the custody of Britain’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS).

Both the pregnant woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and her mother said they do not want the child aborted. A government social worker who helps care for the mother is also opposed to the late-term abortion.

The pregnant woman’s mother is a former midwife and a practicing Catholic from the Nigerian Igbo tribe who has categorically stated that the abortion goes against her faith. She has expressed her willingness to care for the child with the help of her daughter and social workers.

However, Justice Nathalie Lieven ruled that an abortion is in the woman’s best interests after authorities at the NHS trust responsible for the woman’s care asked the courts to let doctors perform an abortion.

At a hearing in the Court of Protection, London, where issues relating to people lacking the mental capacity to make decisions are considered, Lieven said she thought the mother “would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll.”

Conceding her judgment was anti-choice, Lieven said: “I am acutely conscious of the fact that for the State to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion.”

The ruling has even outraged pro-abortionists.

Ann Furedi, the United Kingdom’s best-known abortion activist and CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS is Britain’s equivalent of Planned Parenthood) tweeted: “In principle, forced abortion is as bad as forced pregnancy. Both undermine the principles of moral autonomy & bodily integrity.”

John Deighan, deputy chief executive of the Society for Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) compared the ruling to “how people with mental health issues were treated in the 1930s of Nazi Germany.”

But Catholic bishops in England and Wales only responded to the ruling after the Catholic Herald tweeted: “Their relative silence has dismayed our readers in both the UK and US.”

[…] Pro-lifers are demonstrating Tuesday (25 June) at 6:30 p.m. in front of George V’s statue opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. (Ed: Join them if you possibly can – banners provided)

Read here

Catholic church hits out at court over abortion ruling by Harriet Sherwood, Guardian