Pro-life win in Europe: conscience protections upheld for healthcare workers

This is from the Irish website, Faith & Life

A concerted effort to force European doctors to perform abortions in violation of their consciences has been comprehensively defeated at the Council of Europe.

Addressing the Assembly, Senator Mullen reminded the members that the rights of unborn children are recognised by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. He pointed out that “[t]here is no such thing as a human right to abortion, nor has any text ever indicated such a right. However, it is a basic principle of human rights law that all human beings without exception have a range of rights including that of conscientious objection.”

Addressing Mrs McCafferty, Senator Mullen said, “I will support you when you seek measures to support women who are unhappily pregnant, so that they do not feel that their only option is abortion. I will take the lead, speaking as a man and as a legislator, in ensuring that our societies are welcoming and supportive at all times. But what I cannot do is join you in what is, in effect, the furtherance of a pro-abortion agenda, because, contrary to what it claims, the report is not about ensuring that all women receive necessary medical care in pregnancy.”

He drew attention to the fact that those consulted in the preparation of the report are self-confessed abortion advocates. The Senator concluded by referring to the increasing reluctance of doctors to involve themselves with abortion. “That is why I suggest that this report has been produced. Instead of smelling the cultural coffee, Mrs McCafferty and her allies are seeking to batten down the hatches and create internationally binding obligations, even as people in individual societies are becoming more uncomfortable about abortion and seeking more life-affirming alternatives.”

The final resolution urged that “No person, hospital or institution shall be coerced, held liable or discriminated against in any manner because of a refusal to perform, accommodate, assist or submit to an abortion, the performance of a human miscarriage, or euthanasia or any act which could cause the death of a human foetus or embryo, for any reason.”

In the end, McCafferty and other pro-abortion members voted against the amended report rather than affirm life and fundamental human rights. Among those lobbying for a clampdown on freedom of conscience were the pro-abortion groups Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and ‘Catholics’ for Choice.