Religious beliefs is not the right answer to abortion rates

In France, in Italy, in Spain and elsewhere, the Catholic Church uses every trick against contraception and abortion. These attacks are not recent, but nowadays the Church feels all the more powerful since right-wing political parties are willing to help it in its quest.

In the United Kingdom, the Catholic religion, despite its marginal status (or rather because), is for a long time much more influential and militant. Here is an article about the issue of abortion in the UK and in the world. It was written by George Monbiot, and published in the Guardian on February 26, 2008.

I agree with His Eminence about the distress caused by the deaths of unborn children – but his policies will only increase the rate.

Who carries the greatest responsibility for the deaths of unborn children in this country? I accuse the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. I charge that he is partly to blame for our abnormally high abortion rate.

Let me begin with a point of agreement. “Whatever our religious creed or political conviction,” Murphy-O’Connor writes, the level of abortion in the UK “can only be a source of distress and profound anguish for us all”. Quite so. But why has it climbed so high? Is it the rising tide of liberalism? The absence of abstinence? Strange as it may seem, the evidence suggests the opposite. [...] Murphy-O’Connor has denounced contraception and abortion many times. That’s what he is there for: the primary purpose of most religions is to control women. But while we may disagree with his position, we seldom question either its consistency or its results. It’s time we started. The most effective means of preventing the deaths of unborn children is to promote contraception.

Source: www.mikhaela.net

I do agree with George Monbiot. I do not recommend abortion as a way of birth control though, but I do believe that abortion should remain accessible to all women and to be offered in a safe medical and sanitary environment. As Monbiot says, a woman who wants to terminate her pregnancy will find a way to do it, wheter it is in a private hospital or in terrible conditions. With bad cirumstances surrounding the pregnancy termination, women put their lives at risk and compromise their chances of being pregnant again.

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