c. 1997 Religion News Service
LONDON _ Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Winning, the archbishop of Glasgow,has promised any woman _ anywhere _ facing an unwanted pregnancy unconditional practical and financial aid if she refuses to have an abortion.”Today, I issue an open invitation to any woman, any family, any couple who may be facing the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy,”Winning said in a speech Sunday (March 9) to the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, a group that opposes abortion.”I strenuously urge any person in that situation, of any ethnic background, of any faith, from anywhere, to come to the archdiocese of Glasgow for assistance,”Winning added.
Winning’s comments came in the wake of a poll released last month that shows two-thirds of Scottish Roman Catholics believe women should have the right to an abortion.
Abortion has been legal in Britain since 1968, when the 1967 Abortion Act, piloted through Parliament by an elder of the Church of Scotland, the former Liberal Party leader David Steel, became law.
In 1996, there were about 160,000 abortions in the country.
Winning also has been critical of Scotland’s Labor Party, which generally supports abortion rights. He has accused party leadership of pressuring Members of Parliament opposed to abortion to change or soften their stance.
In his remarks to the anti-abortion group, Winning offered a variety of practical aids to women with unwanted pregnancies.”Whatever worries or care you may have, we will help you,”he said.”If you need pregnancy testing or counseling we will help you. If you want help to cope with raising the baby on your own, we will help you. If you want to discuss adoption of our unborn child, we will help you. If you need financial assistance, or help with equipment for your baby, and feel financial pressures will force you to have an abortion, we will help you,”he said.
Winning’s initiative was welcomed Monday by Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster and the top Catholic official in Great Britain.
Hume, describing abortion as”one of the greatest scandals of our time,”said the church”has always recognized that it is one thing to condemn abortion, another to offer practical help to those facing a difficult decision or to ensure (that) adoption is available as an alternative to abortion.”Cardinal Winning has given a good lead which we should all consider carefully,”Hume said.
The practical details of Winning’s proposal, however, remain unclear.
The Rev. Noel Barry, Winning’s press secretary, said it is”quite impossible to quantify”the cost of Winning’s offer. But he said the archdiocese has already received pledges of support to fulfill the commitment, including one woman who promised to give part of the proceeds of the sale of her house to the effort and another woman who promised to give $80,000.
Barry also acknowledged it is not clear precisely how the plan would work nor how it would affect the finances of the Glasgow archdiocese.
The archdiocese in 1993 had a deficit of $10.7 million. Its social service programs had an additional $2.4 million deficit.
However, some light can be thrown on the magnitude of the problem and the claim that could be made on archdiocesan resources by the experience of the anti-abortion charity Life, an independent group which has been offering practical help to women facing unwanted or unexpected pregnancies since 1970.
Life receives some 90,000 calls a year and its national telephone helpline is often overloaded. It has 134″care centers”around the United Kingdom and 44 homes that provide accommodations for women made homeless by pregnancy. At any one time some 200 women live in these houses, and over a year some 300 will be helped in this way.
The group itself has a budget of about $1.2 million a year.
But according to Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of the group, the most essential service provided by Life is free confidential, professional counseling that allows women the freedom to decide what to do at a time when they are often under pressure to have an abortion.
MJP END NOWELL
