The Council of Europe, which is larger than the European Union, is considering a draft resolution that would deny the right of hospitals to opt out of doing abortions.
The title of the resolution is "The Women's Access to Lawful Medical Care -- the Problem of Unregulated Use of Conscientious Objection." Joseph Meany of Human Life International tells OneNewsNow that the Council is not concerned about ethics or religious beliefs. "[W]hat they're basically trying to do with this is...force medical institutions to perform abortions even if they have conscientious objection to that," Meany explains. "We're thinking particularly about Catholic hospitals, Christian hospitals -- not just individuals, but...entire institution[s] will be forced to have abortion facilities if it's legal in that country." Doctors against abortion would not be required to perform them, Meany adds. "But what they do generally -- and this has happened in other countries like South Africa -- is that they say...if you don't perform an abortion, then we require you to refer this person on to another person who will do the abortion," he notes. But Meany believes there is hope in stopping the resolution from countries that do not support abortion or that limit it. The problem, he explains, is that members of the Council are usually government officials at home -- so they are more concerned about that than what the Council does.
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