“I am deeply upset after reading the report on the activities of the British advisory Service on pregnancy, published in recent days, which suggests that the Service performs part of its activity by helping women to obtain an abortion even after the limit of 24 weeks, even after the 26th week or later still”. The deep concern expressed by the archbishop of Birmingham Vincent Nichols is contained in a letter sent to the secretary of the Minister of Health, John Reid, asking that his investigation into the activities of the said advisory Service be “deep, rapid and effective”. “British law provides only a veil of protection to the child in its mother’s womb continues the archbishop and it is unacceptable that a public service should help to destroy it”. According to the archbishop, “abortion should be called by its real name: it is the deliberate wresting of life from an unborn child”. Remarking that “the approval of the law on abortion in 1967 had a pejorative effect on the whole of British society”, Archbishop Nichols, in a homily given during a special mass for health workers celebrated in St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham in recent days, called for an urgent reform of legislation on the matter. “Our legislation on abortion he said must be reformed not only in the light of the recent discoveries of medicine, but also in the respect due to human life in all its stages. The Catholic Church wishes to promote the primacy of the dignity of human life”. More generally, Nichols called on doctors and nurses to show “greater understanding and respect for the needs of patients” which also include their “spiritual and religious needs”.
