SYDNEY, Australia: Australia’s conservative health minister on Tuesday defended his decision to give the Roman Catholic church part of a multi-million-dollar pregnancy counseling contract that critics say will discourage women from having abortions.
Tony Abbott, a staunch Roman Catholic who once warned of an "epidemic" of abortions in Australia, conceded that the Catholic-run organization awarded the contract did not condone abortion, but said it would not lecture women against having the procedure.
"It’s not the philosophy of the organization providing the counseling that is important, it’s the professionalism," Abbott told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "If anyone thinks they are being lectured … there’ll be a mechanism in place for reporting that and for action to be taken."
I wonder if this is really any different than the program in Germany. The Catholic Church was involved with diocesan sponsored counseling centers where women would have to go before getting an abortion and then-Cardinal Ratzinger as head of the CDF put a stop to it.
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I wonder if this is really any different than the program in Germany. The Catholic Church was involved with diocesan sponsored counseling centers where women would have to go before getting an abortion and then-Cardinal Ratzinger as head of the CDF put a stop to it.
In Germany giving the sort of counseling that satisfied the law allowed the woman to get an abortion legally and thus was judged to be a cooperation in the abortion to a significant degree. In Australia there is no such requirement of counseling, at least as far as the federal government is concerned, so they do not appear to be similar at all.
For all the whingeing and whining of the pro-choice senators etc about all this, I’m thinking that at a practical level, since so few “Catholics” seem to agree with the Church on abortion, the result will probably be no different. Sadly.
But kudos to Tony Abbott for sticking his neck on the line. He is forever being abused by the media and pro-“choice” crowd. He really does want to make a difference in this area.
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