While the culture of death continue spreading around the globe, Catholics and other Christians took the task of resisting this octopus of evil. Meanwhile the evil continued to gain grounds in judicial rulings in the name of human rights and healthcare.
ARIZONA
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
In the process of the negotiations he had discovered a pattern of serious ethical violations at both St. Joseph's and in the wider Catholic Healthcare West system in Arizona that extended far longer than seven years. It participated in the so-called Mercy Health Plan, though which it receives federal and state monies to provide health care services to the poor--including abortion, birth control, and sterilization. The motive apparently is enrichment. For the past 26 years the plan paid the hospital more than $100 million per year, and its participation revenues will reach nearly $2 billion this year.
Catholic teaching forbids direct and intentional abortion as the deliberate taking of innocent human life. And that abortion is never medically necessary or morally permissible.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmstead of Phoenix held talks with the hospital to get the hospital admit its ethical wrongdoing in performing the abortion and commit to the Church's Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, drawn by the US bishops to guited treatment in Catholic institutions.
But St. Josephs's continued to maintain it did nothing wrong in performing abortion on the woman. The talks reached an impasse in November. Bishop Olmstead gave the officials a Dec. 17 deadline, and then Dec. 21, to reach an undersetanding. But nothing happened.
On 21 December 2010, Bishop Olmstead declared St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, a company of Catholic Healthcare West, can no longer call itself a Catholic institution. With its Catholic identity stripped, the hospital will be forced to remove the Eucharist from its chapels, and priests are prohibited from celebrating Mass at the hospital.
A few months earlier in May, Bishop Olmstead declared that Sister Margaret McBride had incurred an automatic excommunication for her role in recommending the abortion. (Source)
IRELAND
European Court of Human Rights
Strasbourg, France | On 16 December 2010, just nine days before the birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Ireland's abortion ban breached the rights of a woman who filed suit against Ireland after she had to leave the country in order to procure an abortion.
In the case ABC vs. Ireland, three women filed a suit against Ireland for having to travel to another country for abortions. The first two suits were dismissed by the court. Woman "C," who had a rare form of cancer that she believed could resurface during her pregnancy, however obtained a favorable ruling even if apparently no such condition appeared while the pregnancy was in progress then. The Lithuanian woman still continued her chemotherapy treatment in order to prevent the resurface of cancer when her pregnancy came, and reducing her chemotherapy treatment might cause cancer to reappear. Since her baby could be harmed if she continue with her chemotherapy, she opted instead to had the child aborted. This ruling came even if she was unable to find a doctor to substantiate these claims.
Ireland established its abortion ban in 1861. In 1992, in what was know as the X Case, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that abortion was lawful in Ireland if a significant risk to the life of the mother can result from her pregnancy. However, for the last 18 years, the ruling remained in limbo as the Irish lawmakers avoided taking any substantial action on it. ECHR found that C's life was in danger, a situation allowed for abortion under the 1992 ruling. In addition, her right to "private and family life," under Article 8 of the Irish Constitution, was found violated. ECHR ordered Ireland to pay her 15,000 Euros (around $20,000). (Source)
BRAZIL
Sao Paulo, Brazil | The federal constitution of Brazil already put into law that life "cannot be violated." But, according to Hermes Nery (coordinator of the pro-life commission for the Diocese of Taubate), "it does not spell out at what point." As what can be seen in other countries, legal loopholes like this can be used by evil people to undermine the protection of the unborn children. "We want the state constitution to explicitly declare that human life begins at conception and ends with natural death," he said.
The dioceses of Taubate, Lorena, Caraguatatuba and Guarulhos are pushing for changes to the state constitution in an effort to prevent legalization of abortion in Brazil. Current president-elect Dilma Rousseff has voiced her support of legalized abortion on various occasions. The position cost her some seven million voits in the first round of the 2010 Brazilian presidential elections. To control the voting bleed, she softened her position to "personally opposed to abortion," and promised not to send proposals for the legalization of abortion to Congress. (Source)
COLOMBIA
Clinic for "Limited Gynecological Care"
Medellin, Colombia | In 2007 the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that abortion is legally allowed in cases of rape, fetal deformation or to protect the life of the mother. It also ruled that schools must each students that abortion is a "right."
On 27 October 2010, Colombian bishops met with a group of politicians who put fortd a measure measure in March that would modify the Constitution, allowing it to protect human life from conception to natural death.
On 25 November, officials of the city of Medellin proposed to build an abortion clinic, presented as a women's clinic that would offer "limited gynecological care." It called for nearly $8 million in taxpayer funds to build the clinic. Carlos Mario Rivera Escobar, Secretary of Health at the Colombian Department of Antioquia blocked the proposal as gynological care is already being sufficiently met by the Medellin Genral Hospital and the local healthcare system. (Source)
IRELAND
European Court of Human Rights
Strasbourg, France | On 16 December 2010, just nine days before the birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Ireland's abortion ban breached the rights of a woman who filed suit against Ireland after she had to leave the country in order to procure an abortion.
In the case ABC vs. Ireland, three women filed a suit against Ireland for having to travel to another country for abortions. The first two suits were dismissed by the court. Woman "C," who had a rare form of cancer that she believed could resurface during her pregnancy, however obtained a favorable ruling even if apparently no such condition appeared while the pregnancy was in progress then. The Lithuanian woman still continued her chemotherapy treatment in order to prevent the resurface of cancer when her pregnancy came, and reducing her chemotherapy treatment might cause cancer to reappear. Since her baby could be harmed if she continue with her chemotherapy, she opted instead to had the child aborted. This ruling came even if she was unable to find a doctor to substantiate these claims.
Ireland established its abortion ban in 1861. In 1992, in what was know as the X Case, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that abortion was lawful in Ireland if a significant risk to the life of the mother can result from her pregnancy. However, for the last 18 years, the ruling remained in limbo as the Irish lawmakers avoided taking any substantial action on it. ECHR found that C's life was in danger, a situation allowed for abortion under the 1992 ruling. In addition, her right to "private and family life," under Article 8 of the Irish Constitution, was found violated. ECHR ordered Ireland to pay her 15,000 Euros (around $20,000). (Source)
BRAZIL
Sao Paulo, Brazil | The federal constitution of Brazil already put into law that life "cannot be violated." But, according to Hermes Nery (coordinator of the pro-life commission for the Diocese of Taubate), "it does not spell out at what point." As what can be seen in other countries, legal loopholes like this can be used by evil people to undermine the protection of the unborn children. "We want the state constitution to explicitly declare that human life begins at conception and ends with natural death," he said.
The dioceses of Taubate, Lorena, Caraguatatuba and Guarulhos are pushing for changes to the state constitution in an effort to prevent legalization of abortion in Brazil. Current president-elect Dilma Rousseff has voiced her support of legalized abortion on various occasions. The position cost her some seven million voits in the first round of the 2010 Brazilian presidential elections. To control the voting bleed, she softened her position to "personally opposed to abortion," and promised not to send proposals for the legalization of abortion to Congress. (Source)
COLOMBIA
Clinic for "Limited Gynecological Care"
Medellin, Colombia | In 2007 the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that abortion is legally allowed in cases of rape, fetal deformation or to protect the life of the mother. It also ruled that schools must each students that abortion is a "right."
On 27 October 2010, Colombian bishops met with a group of politicians who put fortd a measure measure in March that would modify the Constitution, allowing it to protect human life from conception to natural death.
On 25 November, officials of the city of Medellin proposed to build an abortion clinic, presented as a women's clinic that would offer "limited gynecological care." It called for nearly $8 million in taxpayer funds to build the clinic. Carlos Mario Rivera Escobar, Secretary of Health at the Colombian Department of Antioquia blocked the proposal as gynological care is already being sufficiently met by the Medellin Genral Hospital and the local healthcare system. (Source)
Comments
Post a Comment