EDINBURGH, Dec 3 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon threatened pro-lifers with criminal legislation, commanding them to “back off” from protests outside abortuaries.
Precious Life spokesman Jim Dowson said he “utterly condemned” any violence and said that the protests were to educate. Despite the groups commitment to peaceful activism, Deacon had no tolerance for them.
“What I am saying to these extremists is that it’s time for them to back off from the clinics, from the support services that provide that advice and support,” she said.
Dowson said Deacon’s remarks were reminiscent of Josef Stalin, “It’s the pro-life lobby at the moment, next year who is it going to be? It’s a clear message from the state that they will not tolerate any dissent at all.”
Minister Deacon also upset the Catholic Church with her strategies to implement “targeted provision of condoms and pills” directed at youth. “I want to see more, new, convenient facilities to offer modern, effective ways of delivering sexual advice and targeted contraception in settings which attract young people,” she said in an address to the Public Health Medicine in Edinburgh.
Commenting on Deacon’s remarks, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning, said I condemn quite unreservedly the suggestion by Ms Deacon that we should have a massive expansion in clinics offering sex advice, condoms and very possibly abortifacient morning after pills.
I say to her: “You show no respect for the young people of Scotland by offering them easy sex with no thought for the consequences.”
For more see the following BBC reports;
'Stalin' Jibe Over Abortions Warning
Cardinal Condemns Sex Clinics Call