Statement on Abortion: Issued by the Australian Catholic Bishops
19 April 1988
This year, many Australians have given thought to the condition of their nation: sometimes gratefully, sometimes hopefully, sometimes painfully. We do not love our country less when we see things that are wrong and say so: we love it all the more.
Last century, Australia’s first Catholic bishop, John Bede Polding, tried to awaken consciences about the treatment of the aborigines. He came up against those, who, "in justification of a great crime (had) striven to believe that these...are not our fellow creatures." In 1988, we Catholic bishops repeat his words in another context for there are Australians today who, in spite of all the evidence, deny that humans at the very beginning of life are our fellow creatures. They seek to invent a category of human beings outside the protection of the law.
We Australians are in danger of losing our respect for human life. It is happening step by step. Our attitude to human life is becoming coarsened and desensitized. In 1986, we paid, through Medicare for 61,773 abortions. Scarcely a voice was raised in protest at the slaughter. Meanwhile, in Australian laboratories humans were beginning life with just one earthly prospect: to be the subjects of experiments.
There is no reason which can justify the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. However, the supporters of legal abortion once put reasons which, on the surface, seemed compassionate. They said that many women would suffer physical or psychological harm if they carried a baby to term. Despite the lack of convincing evidence, those reasons were accepted. Now, we hear reasons which do not even feign compassion: "The pregnancy came at an awkward time", or "It was a girl, but we were wanting a boy". Are these now the sort of reasons we are asked to accept?
To-day a pregnant mother is assailed by many voices which disapprove of what she is doing. A woman has to be very faithful to her truest intuitions if she is to withstand a persuasive counsellor or doctor, and listen instead to the still small voice near her heart.
Today, euthanasia and infanticide are being promoted in a fashion similar to those early, successful efforts to promote abortion. Once again, appeals to a misdirected "compassion" are made. Once again, limits are proposed. In the light of our experience with abortion, it is fair to ask: how long would the limits hold?
For every Australian killed in the womb, there are fewer than four born. Behind that figure crouches the continuing threat of a mentality which regards a human life, if inconvenient, as disposable. The ageing of our population, to which abortion contributes both directly and indirectly, puts at risk another group of Australians. Will the law, which has so far failed to protect the youngest and most defenceless among us, gradually be made to withdraw its protection from those too old to defend themselves?
However, even as we watch these terrible developments, (here are signs that many people, particularly women, are beginning to think again. The evidence of long term, psychic damage caused to women whose children have been disposed of in this way, shows that the path of destruction left by an abortion does not stop at the dead baby. Our hearts therefore, go out to the women who have been so tragically misled. We want them to know that Christ loves them and longs to heal them. He is ready to forgive every woman and man involved.
Abortion is a moral issue, but that does not mean it is outside the competence of the law. It is the law’s business to protect these Australians. It is the law’s business to uphold and embody the values of a nation. We value human rights. Once a government begins to deny human rights to one group or another, no one is safe.
Our system of government gives responsibilities as well as rights to every citizen. We cannot blame bad laws on politicians. We elect the politicians who make the laws. Australian politicians should know that many of us regard certain issues as basic to national survival.
Abortion is such an issue.
19 April 1988