DUNEDIN, NZ, July 3, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand, is calling the faithful to act against the creation of a new abortion facility at the local Southland Hospital, which will be licensed to kill unborn children until the ninth month of pregnancy.
“As a Family of Faith we are opposed to all abortion and we must do all we can to prevent this culture of death spreading in our country,” writes Bishop Colin Campbell. “As the ad goes, ‘think globally, act locally.’ Let us continue to pray and raise our voices in the private and public arena and in our wider community.”
“Let our voices and pleas be heard by our politicians and Minister of Health We pray that members of the Southern District Health Board and its management will hear our voice and reject this license for abortion at our Southland Hospital,” he adds.
Citing a statement made against abortion by the country’s Catholic bishops in 1989, Campbell calls abortion “the greatest human rights issue of our day,” and states that “every human being has an inviolable right to life.”
“Nothing can ever justify [abortion],” he continues. “It is urgent to proclaim this truth in season and out of season, welcome or unwelcome.”
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According to an open letter on the proposed abortion facility by New Zealand Right to Life, the nation’s Abortion Supervisory Committee has admitted that “there are no doctors in Southland who are prepared to be involved in the killing of innocent and defenseless unborn children by acting as certifying consultants…Many of the staff at the Southland Hospital are dedicated to protecting the life of unborn children are also opposed to having a ‘service’ that destroys life inflicted on their hospital and community.”
The group asks the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer, Lexie O’Shea, to refuse to accept the license and to invoke her rights of conscience under the nation’s Contraception, Sterilization, and Abortion Act of 1977.
According to Southlanders for Life, a local pro-life organization, the new abortion facility is the brainchild of Carole Heatly, the hospital’s new CEO, who has violated her stated policy of communicating with the public about her decisions.
“Ms. Heatly has failed miserably to abide by her own words regarding this new and controversial service,” asserted the organization in a recent press release, adding that New Zealand’s deputy prime minister “has stated that he would have expected the Board and Management to have consulted with the public regarding the introduction of this new and controversial service.”
“We believe the Board and Management has been deliberately secretive regarding this controversial new service in Southland hoping that it would get introduced under the radar. This is a serious breach of the ‘transparency’ Boards and Managements are so fond of talking about,” the organization stated.