CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2020 / 03:00 am
An English bishop has urged Catholics to resist a new push to strip away protections for unborn children that would "leave the U.K. with the most extreme abortion legislation in Europe."
Bishop John Sherrington issued the appeal July 1 as Members of Parliament sought to table amendments to a domestic abuse bill that he said would introduce "abortion on demand, for any reason, up until when a child is capable of being born alive."
A group of MPs will seek to repeal sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which prohibit the administration of drugs or the use of instruments to cause a miscarriage.
Sherrington said: "This is being presented as decriminalizing abortion but it would, if carried, do far more than that. It would result in the introduction of abortion on demand, for any reason, up until when a child is capable of being born alive, with a ceiling of 28 weeks."