Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Scandal as US nun helps out at abortion clinic

A US nun is facing excommunication and possible dismissal from her Dominican order after an investigation by the order found she was indeed acting as a volunteer at a Chicago abortion clinic. LifeSiteNews has the latest, after breaking the original story. It comes as the US Catholic bishops launch a massive anti-abortion campaign in the light of health care reforms going through  Congress. Quite a few religious and non-religious have been asking recently why the Holy See has launched a groundbreaking investigation into US nuns. Maybe this story gives us one possible answer.

'Pro-lifer' chooses death as abortion doc gunned down in church

Yesterday, George Tiller, a doctor against whom a vitriolic media campaign has been waged for performing late abortions, was shot and killed while serving as an usher at his Lutheran church in Wichita, Kansas. It is clear the suspect had no formal connections with any pro-life groups, which have condemned the murder. Alpha Mummy at Times Online has a passionate post about this terrible murder, for which a suspect, a man with a history of mental illness, is now being held.

Cardinal speaks out on abortion

As we report, the Government won the vote on abortion last night. Earlier yesterday, I went along to Archbishop's House in Westminster to interview him. Back in February, the Cardinal wrote personally to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown urging a free vote on the bill. His letter is understood to have been one of the key influences behind the Brown's change of mind on this. Yesterday, arguing that even "incremental change" would a step in the right direction, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor appealed to British society to "change its mind" on abortion. The emphasis should be on helping women with unwanted pregnancies to cope with the practical and emotional complications so they can carry their babies to term, he said. He also criticised the Government over the removal of a baby's right to a father,  warning that any legislation that eroded the place of the family in society should be opposed. (Updatee: see our news report on his response to the vote.)

Abortion and the value of life

As Parliament prepares today to debate whether or not to lower the abortion time limit, Birmingham's Archbishop Vincent Nichols is being taken to task by the head of SPUC. Archbishop Nichols appears to have given a radio interview  where he implied that the value of an unborn child might not be equivalent to that of a fully-fledged adult human.

Abortion Act Anniversary

Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Keith O'Brien have written an open letter calling for a change of heart in British attitudes towards abortion. The letter coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act (to be marked this weekend) and is an attempt to lower the rate of terminated pregnancies which currently number 200,000 every year.

The approach in the letter seems somewhat scaled back from that taken by Cardinal O'Brien earlier this year when he called abortion "an unspeakable crime" and likened the rate of terminations in Scotland to "two Dunblane massacres everyday". In this appeal they call for an "incremental improvement to what is an unjust law"

Abortion Rights today host the Global Safe Abortion conference, promoting the rights of women in the developing world. The Christian Medical Fellowship with Christian Concern for Our Nation have announced they are picketing the event.

Amnesty's abortive move

From one perspective, the bold step taken by Amnesty International earlier this month in supporting abortion in particular circumstances, such as where a woman caught up in a war is pregnant through rape, is to be admired. From another, perhaps more serious point of view, it could be regretted. As we report on our faith page online, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the most senior Catholic bishop in Scotland, is the latest to resign from Amnesty after more than 40 years as a member. The Bishop of East Anglia went a few days ago.