Midwives, Second-Class

TERMINATING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE UK

By: Eric Metaxas
BreakPoint

The adage goes that when it comes to social issues, the United States is at best a decade or two behind Europe. With its cathedrals collecting cobwebs, its laws enshrining all sorts of alternative sexual practices, and its widespread disregard for the sanctity of life, this once-devout home of Christendom could very well be a picture of America's future.

But not everyone in Europe accepts the new secular orthodoxy. Far from it. Many, like Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood, longtime midwives from Scotland, have deep reservations about what many consider standard procedure in their profession. I'm speaking, of course, about abortion.

As Labor Ward Coordinators at Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, Doogan and Wood were exempted from performing or assisting in abortions under the 1967 act that legalized the practice in the U.K.—or so they thought.

After changes in their hospital's maternity services made it likely that more abortions would come their way, these midwives took their reservations to court. Initially, they were told that as heads of their ward, the Abortion Act's exemption clauses didn't apply to them. Even if they refused to carry out the “procedures” personally, the health board ruled, they'd still have to delegate, support, and supervise other staff performing the abortions.

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