“Children are not a disease: to offer women the chance of an abortion subsidized by medical insurance plans is cynical and expresses contempt for life”, comments Johannes Fenz, chairman of the Federation of Catholic Families of Austria, responding to the recent proposal of the Vice-President of the Austrian Greens, Eva Glawischnig, which has aroused a heated debate within the country. “Rather than finance abortion, it’s more important to invest money in prevention, counselling and measures in support of women who find themselves in situations of emergency”, he added. “It is incomprehensible how people can propound the global protection of nature and at the same time show contempt for the protection of human life”, observed Fenz, who sees “in the offer to fund abortion through medical insurance plans an attempt to induce people to consider abortion substantially legal in Austria”. According to the bishop of Feldkirch, the Right Rev. Elmar Fischer, the debate on the Glawischnig proposal also shows “that many politicians are actively campaigning against the protection of life”. “It is the task of politics to create the conditions that enable women to give birth to a child. Respect for expectant mothers imposes on all of us the need to ensure they be offered the best possible assistance. Abortion paid by medical insurance funds means equating an unborn child with a disease. Each human life, whether before or after birth, must in all cases be unconditionally defended”, said the bishop. Criticisms of the Green Party’s proposal have also been voiced by the Vice-President of “Pro-Life Youth”, Monica Haas: “The task of medical insurance funds is to fund medical treatment. To ask them to fund abortion, which is never an acceptable solution, flies in the face of all logic”.
