SYDNEY, November 26, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference announced last night that it would be working harder to give pregnant women more support in an effort to stem the rising tide of abortion in the country. In a media release, the bishops said, “Women with unplanned pregnancies need to be offered genuine alternatives to abortion.” The bishops hope to find practical ways to provide mothers with better counseling, healthcare, housing and financial support.
The bishops called for the institution of a “national forum” to find ways to help women in need and called on churches, government and charities to join them to ensure all pregnant women had real options.
Many studies have shown that the ‘choice’ rhetoric used to defend legalized abortion does not reflect the experience of real women in unplanned pregnancies. Women often say that abortion is a last resort in what is perceived to be a desperate economic situation.
The bishops write, “The well-being of a pregnant mother and her child cannot be separated. To harm one is always to harm the other; to care for one always requires caring for both. Yet too often women report being pressured.”“If the pressure of your circumstances are forcing your hand in the direction of abortion, we want to make sure that you really do have other options,” said Conference spokesman Bishop Anthony Fisher, an auxiliary bishop in Sydney. To read the bishops’ media release: https://www.cathnews.com/news/411/doc/26acbc.doc hw