Maternity wards to be closed if necessary: Hart
<http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=9151>http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=9151 Published: September 23, 2008 Emacs! Catholic hospitals may be forced to close their maternity and emergency wings if Victoria's abortion law reform bill is passed in its present form, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has said. Archbishop Denis Hart warned that Catholic-run hospitals might have to stop running conventional maternity and emergency services if Parliament passed the laws, The Australian reports. He warned in a pastoral letter that Catholic staff would face having to break the law if they wanted to maintain anti-abortion beliefs. "This Bill poses a real threat to the continued existence of Catholic hospitals," Archbishop Hart said. "Under these circumstances, it is difficult to foresee how Catholic hospitals could continue to operate maternity or emergency departments in this state in their current form." Catholic hospitals are central to the state's health system and are responsible for handling about a third of all births each year. A radical shift in how the major Catholic hospitals treat patients could cost the Brumby Government tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year, The Australian says. "The . . . Bill, if enacted, will lead to Catholic hospitals and doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion, acting contrary to the law," Archbishop Hart said. He said the church did not condemn women who had abortions. "Together with their children, they are the principal victims of the new culture of death," he said. He has warned that the Bill goes further than existing arrangements, contradicting Premier John Brumby. "The Bill is an unprecedented attack on the freedom to hold and exercise fundamental religious beliefs," he said. "The Bill is seriously flawed as much by what it omits as by what it contains." "In the worst-case scenario, if a government is determined to enforce such laws, we have no option. We might get out of hospitals altogether," Archbishop Hart told The Age. "Catholic hospitals cannot be part of any abortion. That has to be respected in the community. Even providing a referral is a co-operation in evil, and that impacts very strongly on us as Catholics," he said. He said the law would require Catholic doctors and nurses with a conscientious objection to abortion to break the law. "This poses a real threat to the continued existence of Catholic hospitals." Archbishop Hart has written to all state MPs asking them to reject the bill, which has been passed in the lower house, as an unprecedented attack on the freedom to hold and exercise fundamental religious beliefs. "It makes a mockery of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and the Equal Opportunity Act in that it requires health professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion to refer patients seeking an abortion to other health professionals who do not have such objections. A Government spokesman last night confirmed that under the proposed law, doctors who objected on grounds of conscience would have to provide an "effective referral". He said the Victorian Law Reform Commission considered the issue carefully and followed the approach recommended by the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He said the bill had no impact on Catholic hospitals. "There is no proposal that Catholic hospitals should perform abortions. Catholic hospitals employ many medical professionals who may hold a variety of views which they must hold independent of the institution in which they work," he said. Martin Laverty, chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, told The Age that Catholic hospitals were still working out the implications. He said the referral requirement seemed to contradict the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act, which guaranteed freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief. Mr Laverty said no other Australian state stipulated mandatory referral and he did not know of anywhere in the world where it existed. However, the Victoria Law Reform Commission report on abortion notes that British regulations require doctors to "make an effective referral" where they have a conscientious objection. SOURCE <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24388502-5006785,00.html>Abortion laws a 'real threat' to hospitals (The Australian, 23/9/08) <http://www.theage.com.au/national/archbishop-in-abortion-law-threat-20080922-4lsl.html?page=-1>Archbishop in abortion law threat (The Age, 23/9/08) <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage ~ Share your faith <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.flickr.com/groups/holypostage/>Holy Postage on <http://www.flickr.com/groups/holypostage/>Flickr <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://holypostage.mofuse.mobi/>Holy Postage on your Mobile <*}}}>< Holy Postage ~ Share your faith <http://holypostage.mofuse.mobi/> Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue with Your help, so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Please note that I do not send or open attachments sent to this list. 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