GREAT BRITAIN
The number of doctors and medical students who refuse to perform abortions is on the rise. Forty years after the enforcement of the law that made abortion legal, the “Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists”, the professional roll that brings together gynaecologists ad obstetricians, stated that one half of the abortions performed in Great Britain are carried out in private hospitals, because a large part of the medical profession working in the public health sector are conscientious objectors. Every year in Great Britain 190,000 abortions are performed, one third of all women decide to have an abortion at least once in their life, and 90% of such abortions are performed before the twelfth week of pregnancy. The number of abortions performed before the tenth week of the child’s life has increased by 13% since 2002. “At last, the British doctors’ conscience has woken up”, said Paul Danone, spokesman for the “Society for the protection of unborn children”, one of the most important pro-life associations in the UK, as he commented the news, “it was high time, given that there have been six million deaths since abortion was made legal. It was high time the medical profession became aware of the extent and seriousness of the reality of abortions”. Medical students too are against abortion. A trend to which the “Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists” responded by including the practice of abortion in the compulsory curriculum for graduating in medicine, thus hoping to increase the number of doctors who will be willing to perform abortion. According to Josephine Quintavalle from the pro-life association “Alive and Kicking”, this is a wrong hope because “the reason why students and doctors are conscientious objectors is that the number of abortions performed for social reasons is rising all the time”. According to Martin Foley of “Life” association, “there are doctors who oppose to abortion on request”. Ian Jessiman, from the “Guild of Catholic doctors”, stated that “for a long time there has a been an anti-abortion movement within the medical profession. This is an interesting development”. According to Paul Danone, the right to conscientious objection should also be given to people working in education and nursing. “I hope we will see a mass movement of doctors, nurses and teachers who will refuse to cooperate with abortion”. According to Josephine Quintavalle, “the United Kingdom is aware by now that there are too many abortions. We should join forces to make abortion scarce”.
