BY Liz Leydon | February 28 | 
2 COMMENTS 
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Anger over message that abortion is safer than childbirth
Pro-life groups in the UK are outraged by new guidance proposals by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Pro-life activists are angry and concerned over plans to tell pregnant women in the UK considering termination that abortions are safer than having a baby.
New guidance proposals by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists instruct doctors, nurses and counsellors to inform women that ‘abortion is generally safer than continuing pregnancy to term.’
The draft plans also instruct health care professionals to tell women contemplating an abortion that most who abort do not suffer any psychological harm following the procedure, with only a minority of women experiencing any ‘long-term feelings of guilt, sadness and regret.’
The guidelines have been slammed as ‘grossly inept’ by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
“The RCOG draft guidelines play down the physical and psychological side-effects of abortion, discounting the real and serious damage that abortion can cause,” Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, said.
Josephine Quintavalle of the Pro-Life Alliance accusing the Royal College of ‘manipulating the evidence’ in a bid to promote the pro-choice message.
“I don’t believe that most women considering abortions are worried it will kill them or are worrying about dying in childbirth,” she said. “This is a blatant attempt to force an absurdly liberal agenda on women when they are at their most vulnerable.”
Professor Patricia Casey, a consultant psychiatrist of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said many studies show a clear association between psychological trauma and abortion.
“The message this sends out is very worrying,” she added.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said the draft guidance ‘isn’t a political document’ and ‘isn’t trying to persuade women to have abortions.’ However the Royal College said it is rewriting some of the recommendations in light of the concerns that have been aired.
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Although the item here is brief, and the ‘abortion is safer & no long-term side effects’ message will probably be part of the advice a woman contemplating abortion will receive, this really is the top of the slippery slope. By that argument, might the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists one day advocate abortions for all?
SPUC had great success recently, and they would appear to have their work cut out here, to eradicate, or at least force a balance of, the proposed information as stated in the news item.
Whether abortion is safer than carrying a pregnancy to term is completely irrelevant. Abortion is murder and carrying a pregnancy to term is part of the natural law. These facts are not the prerogative of any religion; they are inscribed in the human intellect. As for Christians, we should know better.