Posted on 02/29/2012 2:09:34 PM PST by Morgana
EDINBURGH, U.K., February 29, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Judgment was handed down today in the case of two senior midwives from Glasgow who have a conscientious objection to abortion. The midwives have been told that they must accept the decision of their hospital management that they must oversee other midwives performing abortions on the labour ward.
Lady Smith, judge in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, ruled that the senior midwives’ role is not covered by the conscience clause in the Abortion Act.
Both the midwives have served for over 20 years at the Southern General Hospital, caring for many thousands of mothers and babies. The case arose when the hospital demanded that all senior midwives must take responsibility for overseeing mid-term and late term abortions. Since 2008 the hospital has insisted that these abortions, mostly for suspected disability in the foetus, must be conducted on the labour ward, rather than the gynaecology ward where most early abortions are performed.
The midwives in the case, Miss Mary Doogan and Mrs Connie Wood, argued that they had never been required to supervise abortion procedures in the past, and that the hospital was asking them to be morally, medically and legally responsible for abortions. They argued that this conflicted with their profound objection to abortions and with the right to opt-out that is protected in the 1967 Abortion Act.
Commenting on the judgment, Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said: “We are very disappointed by the judgment. SPUC has supported the midwives in bringing their case, and will now be considering their further legal options with them.”
Neil Addison, the director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, noted, “The case is yet another example of the way in which the UK Courts are interpreting s9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Freedom of Religion) in the most limited and restrictive way possible.” Addison continued, “The courts have not hesitated to use the convention to protect murderous terrorists but have refused to use it protect two midwives who do not want to kill unborn children.”
Speaking on behalf of both herself and the other midwife in the case, Doogan said, “Connie and I are both very disappointed and greatly saddened by today’s verdict. For most of our 20-plus years of employment as midwifery sisters at the Southern General Hospital we have been proud to be associated with a maternity unit in which the right of all midwifery staff to freedom of conscience has been acknowledged, protected and upheld with no detrimental outcome to any mother whatsoever.”
Lady Smith ruled that the 1967 abortion act only granted qualified conscience protections in relation to abortion. “The nature of their duties does not in fact require them to provide treatment to terminate pregnancies directly,” she said. “They are sufficiently removed from direct involvement as, it seems to me, to afford appropriate respect for and accommodation of their beliefs.”
Addison criticized “the extremely restrictive interpretation the judge has put on the Conscientious Objection clause in s4 of the Abortion Act.” The interpretation, he said, is such that “believing Catholics, Muslims and others will never be able to take any form of supervisory or management role as midwives or nurses unless they are prepared to be complicit in the provision of abortions.”
Previews of coming attractions in Obama's 2nd term ...
California is also going to let nurses and midwives do abortions. How long before they are forced to?
Can they quit or will they be hunted down in a Catacombs?
The left has to force others to do it, to ay for it, to tolerate it.
It’s political warfare and they are the only side fielding an army.
They should just quit I guess.
We know this kind of thing is coming in the US too
These midwives should follow in the footsteps of their God-fearing predecessors: Obey God and defy the illegitimate ruler. Perform no child murder!
Oops. I am assuming they are allowed to quit. Ayn Rand predicted they would try to prevent things like that too, quitting your job.
History repeating itself. Pharoah ordered the Hebrew midwives to murder any male babies.
These midwives should follow in the footsteps of their God-fearing predecessors: Obey God and defy the illegitimate ruler. Perform no child murder!
____________________________________________________________________
There you go! Screw the Pharoah and screw Obozo!
There’s a brief article on this Nazi judge at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Smith,_Lady_Smith
You are a fool. Everyone can be forced to do something, you just need to find the right leverage. Even the military knows that under enough pain and punishment, everyone will succumb.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
That’s unfortunate but doesn’t surprise me. They need to fight it as far as they can, and then quit when that fails. It’s coming here any day now. Heck, it’s already here.
There must be a shortage of unscrupulous doctors willing to operate abortion mills.
What happens when there are not enough willing nurses and midwives?
This shift to "allowing" lesser and lesser qualified people to do abortions is a very strong indicator that legal abortion never was about women's health.
It appears that The Plan is being orchestrated from hell.
Obama thinks he’s watching the game, controlling it...
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Been overwhelmed lately - catching up on pinging. How much worse is it going to get before mayhem? Any ideas? Before people refuse to go along with the plan to turn earth into hell?
Island of fools.
I bet, when the Nazis took power in Germany, many wondered: What happened to the land of Bach and Goethe?
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