An exception to the Act

by Bishop Christopher Prowse

CURRENTLY abortion is defined in the Crimes Act as an offence, but the law allows exceptions for the sake of the woman's health or life.

In practice, abortion is allowed virtually without restriction.

The Victorian Government wishes to remove the offence altogether, to "decriminalise abortion" and regulate it as an "ordinary medical procedure".

The church is often criticised for having a say on matters such as abortion. It is argued church and state should be separate and government is not the business of the church.

The reality is that the constitutional separation of church and state is to protect the church from interference by the state and to ensure that government treats religions equally.

The Australian Constitution protects religious freedom, including the freedom to speak on issues of importance.

In Australia, a very aggressive exlusionist form of secularism has developed that views religious belief and practice with arrogant intolerance and dismissiveness and which is characterised by attempts to exclude contributions to public discussion by persons who are religious.

When Christians take part in public discussion they do so simply as citizens expressing a view about the common good and the principles that are needed to protect the common good.

They are behaving responsibly by taking their civic role seriously.

The church wants to be a voice for the truth that every human being is worthy of respect.

Humans do not live in isolation but in a community.

We do need a public morality, a set of values that underlies our public structures and institutions and guides our conduct.

The view that human life is to be protected is implied by the simple idea of equal respect for persons.

It is legitimate to argue about who is a person, but that is not essentially a religious debate, even if religious people may be inclined to be more sensitive to the need to protect those who are most vulnerable on the fringes of life.

In Victoria, there is a need to speak on behalf of the unborn and on behalf of women who suffer the treachery of being offered abortion as though it were an ordinary medical procedure.

Women pay the highest price not only for motherhood, but even more for its destruction -- the loss of a child.

The only honest stance for all of us is that of solidarity with women at risk.

The church and its agencies seek to offer women genuine alternatives to abortion.

Although abortion is presented as a choice, many women report they were only given one option and that was abortion. For the church, abortion is not a choice.

Abortion has killed about 20,000 unborn children each year in this state and affected at least one in three women.

Recent research indicates that 87 per cent of Australians would like to reduce the abortion rate, although they also want to retain the right for women to choose.

Only 42 per cent hold that a fetus is not a person.

Treating abortion like any other medical procedure under the Health Act betrays the majority view that holds that abortion is immoral even if it is not prohibited.

Because the law is a great educator, this change will result in the community developing a new sense of right and wrong.

Any attempt to give validity to abortion and eliminate accountability for late-term abortions should be resisted.

Bishop Christopher Prowse is Auxiliary Bishop in the Southern Region, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne