Policies for the family are needed” “

Sunday, 2 June: some 72% of the Swiss people voted in favour of the depenalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP) during the first 12 weeks if the pregnant woman is able to demonstrate she is in a state of grave difficulty. The yes vote modifies the Swiss penal code as regards the interruption of pregnancy. Against the advice given by the Democratic Christian Party (PDC), the young and women members of the same party had also urged a yes vote, like the majority of the other political forces. An even higher percentage of the Swiss electorate (roughly 82%) rejected (as the Federal Council, the overwhelming majority of MPs and almost all the political parties had recommended) the popular referendum “For the mother and the child”; it was far more restrictive in its anti-abortion stance than the current law, in that it would have almost totally banned VIP. Commenting on the results, the scale of which they had perhaps not predicted, the Swiss bishops warned against a law which they described as an “open door to new assaults on respect for life”. They fear that this depenalization of abortion will lead to other excesses: abortion up till the last month of pregnancy, elimination of foetuses with physical disabilities, euthanasia, genetic manipulation, commercial use of human embryos, etc. Behind this vote, we can glimpse a certain egoism, reflection of a hedonistic, individualistic and materialistic society. We can speak of a setback to Christian morality… We regret the fact that such Catholic strongholds as Fribourg, the Jura, central Switzerland and the Tessin, 25 years after the first ballot on abortion, have ended up on the side of those supporting the depenalization of abortion: all this in just one generation… The fact nonetheless remains: Switzerland is not ready to create an environment more favourable to the family and to children. The tax regime remains too punitive for families with children. Family allowances are wholly insufficient to help a family cope with the cost of a child; health insurance for each individual (in Switzerland, each person must be individually insured and this goes for every child) does not take income into consideration. Families therefore have enormous social insurance bills to pay. According to Swiss Caritas, 250,000 persons (the “working poor”) are poor in spite of the fact that they have a job. Very often they are single mothers who have to bring up their children alone, single-parent families, and large families, often of immigrants, with minimum professional qualifications. Having children in Switzerland is a factor that leads a part of families to go on public welfare for their support. What we ought to contest is not only “the selfishness” of those who decide to abort, but also the attitude of those who, in Parliament, have for fifty years obstructed a real form of insurance for maternity and a real support for families. For to support a family with more than one child in Switzerland today, words are not enough: material resources are needed. The time has come for the parties that describe themselves as “Christian”, and that base their own electoral campaigns on the family, to act in conformity with the ethical principles of Christianity. Those who still dare to recall the social doctrine of the Church are considered doctrinaire or, worse still, as fundamentalists, by numerous activists and leaders of the parties that forget their Christian roots. We need to gain awareness of the need to show solidarity, so that society may become more responsive, more hospitable to the child. We need to share our wealth more with those in difficulty. We need to promote social justice in one of the most affluent countries in the world.