The Portal December 2017 | Page 24

THE P RTAL
December 2017 Page 24

The European Union and Abortion

A recent directive has scandalised Geoffrey Kirk

There are many reasons for deploring the European Union , not least its recent descent into blackmail . But even Catholics who , for whatever reason , voted to remain in it , must wholeheartedly deplore a recent directive . I quote :

[ The European Union ] ‘ Strongly affirms that the denial of sexual and reproductive health and rights services , including safe and legal abortion , is a form of violence against women and girls ; reiterates that women and girls must have control over their bodies and sexualities ; calls on all the Member States to guarantee comprehensive sexuality education , ready access for women to family planning , and the full range of reproductive and sexual health services , including modern contraceptive methods and safe and legal abortion ’
‘ is a Godless document which will cause moral and social harm .’
And so it is proving .
Geoffrey Kirk is grateful to all those Portal readers who sent get well soon messages during his recent illness .
He is now back in harness .
Replete as it is with the accustomed cant of the soft left , the statement is barely translatable into ordinary speech ; and when it is it proves to be an assault on both the religious freedom of individuals and the autonomy of member states .
Read it carefully : to deny contraceptive rights and abortion ( tout court ) to ‘ women and girls ’ is ‘ a form of violence ’ against them . As such , therefore it is deemed to be of itself an offence , and if the recommended legislation is enacted , would become crime . The refusal to abort becomes itself analogous with rape !
We are entering an era in which doctors may rightly be lauded for struggling against the odds to preserve the lives of children born with near fatal conditions – and yet the same doctors might be criminalised for seeking to save the lives of the healthy children as yet unborn .
Nothing could , in my view more clearly demonstrate that indifference – enmity even – to the Christian roots of Western civilisation to which Pope Benedict alluded in his protest against the omission of any mention of the Faith in the preamble to the Lisbon Treaty .
‘ The charter attached to the Lisbon Treaty ’ he wrote ,