HH SAGA RETURNS OCTOBER 28TH
Gender-Based Abortions Spark Outrage In England As Sex Selection Becomes An Option
CANTERBURY, England (RNS) A group of Christian
lawyers plans to sue two medical doctors who have raised a storm of controversy
for arranging the abortion of female fetuses because the parents wanted boys.
Andrea Williams, CEO of the London-based
Christian Concern, said her group would file suit against the doctors since the
government declined to charge them.
In an Oct. 7 letter to the attorney general,
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said the Abortion Act of 1967 “does
not expressly prohibit gender specific abortions.”
Starmer said the only basis for a prosecution
would be that the doctors failed to carry out “a sufficiently robust assessment”
of their patient’s health.
Disclosures that women were being granted
abortions based on the sex of their fetuses followed an undercover
investigation by the Daily Telegraph in February last year.
The media group secretly filmed doctors agreeing
to terminate fetuses for sex selection purposes.
Responses to the media reports were swift.
“I am extremely concerned to hear about these
allegations,” said Andrew Lansley, a former health secretary. “Sex selection is
illegal and is morally wrong. I’ve asked my officials to investigate this as a
matter of urgency.”
On Oct. 9, a one-day debate on the subject was
held in Parliament. David Burrowes, a Conservative Parliament member, told
colleagues that “gendercide” is now a worldwide issue.
Referring to Starmer’s decision not to prosecute
the two doctors, Burrowes said the 1967 Abortion Act needed clarification.
“There is a lack of transparent information and
no real safeguards,” he said. “It is up to Parliament to deal with that.”
In a statement Oct.10, a spokesperson for the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said: ”People are right to be
outraged that some parents are seeking to use abortion as a means of gender
selection. It is the worst form of discrimination to kill a baby because she is
the ‘wrong’ gender.”
Religion News Service By Trevor Grundy
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