Photo courtesy of Eddie Mahoney
Bishop Stephen Robson in conjunction with the Dundee SPUC branch hosted the 7th Afternoon for Life in the in new Dunkeld Pastoral centre at Our Lady of Victories on 12th March. Around 40 delegates from all over the northeast listened to 4 pro-life speakers with presentations on assisted suicide and abortion.
The first half of the Afternoon covered two important strands of the assisted suicide issue. Dr Gillian Wright, a medical ethicist and former palliative care doctor gave a moving presentation on the realities of assisted suicide as a dangerous alternative to good palliative care. Focusing on real situations, Dr Wright explained how a holistic approach to end-of-life care offers patients, not only choice but, physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social benefits. Delegates heard how, ‘through effective pain management, and good communication with the patient, symptoms can be well controlled’. This timely reminder comes when further pushes to legalise assisted suicide are being felt in Holyrood. Josh Coghill (Advocacy and Development Manager), provided a full update on what’s going on in the Parliaments and how writing to MPs and MSPs at this time is crucial. With many new MSPs, ‘the debate is still undecided’ he said.
Current abortion developments are very much grounded in the Scottish Government’s moves to make ‘DIY abortions’ the norm. Sometimes called telemedical abortions, an at-home abortion involves taking two strong drugs – one to end the pregnancy and another to empty the womb – without any medical supervision.
Alithea Williams, SPUC’s Public Policy Manager, gave a presentation on the recent Scottish Government public consultation to make the ‘emergency’ policy of DIY abortion during the pandemic, regular law. Alithea is responsible for SPUC’s political campaigning and warned that although the consultation responses haven’t yet been made public, DIY abortion has, in fact, been the aim of the anti-life lobby for many years. The presentation included recent statistics that show the dangers to women inherent in taking abortifacients at home as well as highlighting recent studies that show the complete lack of safeguards around the process.
In a Christian Institute ‘mystery shopper’ investigation, multiple non-pregnant women were all sent abortion drugs in the post despite giving false information about the age of the baby, the GPs details, and their medical history. There was no way for the health ‘professionals’ to know whether the woman was being coerced into the abortion, or, indeed, whether the drugs were for her.
Julia Rynkiewicz finished the Afternoon with a personal story highlighting issues with free-speech around pro-life views. As a pro-life student midwife, Julia was declared ‘unfit’ for placement because of her membership of a pro-life student society. The frustrating story was a stark reminder of the courage often required to bear witness to pro-life views and the importance of challenging the status quo.