LONDON, May 17, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The head of Britain’s 30,000-member midwives’ union is refusing to resign after disclosures she signed her members on to support a new campaign for abortion on demand without consulting them or the organization’s board.
Those calling for her resignation also claim she is in a conflict of interest. Cathy Warwick is not only the CEO of the Royal College of Midwives but chairs the board of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which is the UK’s leading provider of abortions.
“I feel the two roles are compatible,” Warwick told the Daily Mail. “I don’t see which I should resign.”
In February, BPAS launched its latest bid to decriminalize abortion entirely. Since 1991 it has been illegal to abort unborn children after 24 weeks in the case of healthy unborn babies but legal until birth for disabled ones. Earlier this month, the Royal College of Midwives formally announced its support for BPAS’ “We Trust Women” campaign, sparking opposition from MPs, Christian and pro-life organizations and midwives themselves.
CitzenGo, an online Christian petition organizer, has gathered nearly 23,000 signatures calling for Warwick’s resignation. It states in part: “It is extremely saddening that a profession which is directed towards helping mothers to give birth to their children is now actively promoting the destruction of those children at any stage of pregnancy.”
The petition further faults Warwick for denying the “conscientious rights” of her membership by not consulting them and for opposing the wishes of most women, 88 percent of whom, a 2014 poll shows, want “a total and explicit ban on sex-selective abortion.”
A statement from the Royal College of Midwives reaffirmed its “full support” to BPAS’ campaign. “The continued criminalization of abortion in the UK may drive women to access abortion services which are neither safe nor legal. …We do not believe that it is right that it is still the case that women who choose to have an abortion can be criminalised and face prison.”
The midwives’ union characterised CitizenGo as “a campaign website based in Spain,” whose signature totals were inflated by foreigners.
The RCM has stated that neither the board nor membership needed to be consulted because the organization has a long standing policy in support of “women’s reproductive rights.”
But British news media are finding enough midwives to protest their union’s official position to justify headline language such as “furious” and “mutiny.” A typical mutineer was midwife Judith Smyth, who told reporters, “Anyone advocating abortion up till birth, I think it is so sad and tragic, but to have my own representative body coming out in support of this extreme view is very disappointing.”
Another member, Michelle Viney, is reported as saying, “I financially support it [the RCM], but I wouldn’t want to be paying a fee towards an organization which is going to be campaigning for something which, morally I 100% disagree with.”
Labour MP Robert Flello zeroed in on Warwick’s two roles. “It is unacceptable that the RCM is led by someone so closely aligned to the biggest provider of abortions.” Flello also faulted her for declaring the position without checking with her members or her board. “This wasn’t a minor shift. … It was a fundamental change and the reason they didn’t ask their members is because they knew it wouldn’t get past them.”
Organizations such as Life Education, Christian Action Research, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children all challenged the midwives’ involvement in a campaign for abortion on demand.
Dr. Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said, “It is bitterly ironic that the RCM, the supposed champion of safe birth and ante-natal care, should be backing a campaign seeking to legalize the killing of unborn children up until birth.”
Peter Tully of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children called it “really quite appalling” that the RCM’s executive would take a position so contrary to their members. “It’s really unbelievable that anyone would go into the midwives’ profession with the aim of ending lives of unborn children.”
Tully said the “disconnect” between RCM’s leaders and members existed in other medical bodies such as the obstetricians and gynaecologists. “The heads of many institutions are not elected and feel free to take ideological positions that neither the public nor their own members agree with.”
The British public lives with a similar “dichotomy,” Tully said, between cherishing unborn babies whose mothers want them and paying through taxes for the destruction of unborn babies whose mothers do not.
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