As England allows abortion pills at home, what does this mean for NI women?

“This isn’t 1984, but 2023 —I should never have been arrested or investigated simply for the thoughts I held in my own mind,” Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested for praying outside of an abortion clinic, said Sept. 22, 2023. / Credit: ADF U… […]

Vatican City, Jan 3, 2021 / 06:15 am (CNA).- Less than two weeks after Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk was allowed to return to Belarus after a four-month exile, the Vatican announced Sunday that Pope Francis had accepted the archbishop’s resignation on his 75th birthday.

In a statement Jan. 3, the Holy See Press Office said that the pope had accepted the archbishop’s resignation in accordance with the Church canon that requests that a bishop offers his resignation to the pope at the age of 75.

The Vatican did not name a successor metropolitan archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev, but appointed 75-year-old Bishop Kazimierz Wielikosielec, the current auxiliary bishop of Pinsk, to serve as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese.

In Belarus, Catholics celebrated Kondrusiewicz’s 75th birthday on Jan. 3 by creating a video honoring his life of service to the Church and holding signs of congratulations.

Kondrusiewicz returned to Belarus on Dec. 24, nearly four months after he was barred from entering his native country after he had spoken in defense of protesters following a disputed presidential election.

Belarusian authorities permitted his return to the country to celebrate Christmas at the request of Pope Francis, according to the nunciature in Belarus.

“The challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and the socio-political crisis call us to return to true religiosity, which shows that we are created for something more than just caring for earthly affairs and pleasures,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said Dec. 24.

“The doors of the former Soviet Union, where militant atheism has prevailed for three generations, have opened to Christ. We got freedom, including religion. Unfortunately, we soon forgot that freedom is not only a gift, but also a responsibility,” he said in his homily, according to the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus.

Protests in Belarus began Aug. 9 after president Alexander Lukashenko was declared to have won that day’s election with 80% of the vote. Electoral officials said that the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, earned 10% of the vote. The opposition claims that she actually garnered at least 60% of votes.

Thousands of protesters against the election results were detained, including a number of priests. Archbishop Kondrusiewicz prayed outside of a prison where protesters were being held on Aug. 20.

Later that month Kondrusiewicz, who had been visiting Poland, was blocked from returning to Belarus by Belarusian border guards. His passport had been invalidated.

Lukashenko, who has served as president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994, suggested that Kondrusiewicz might be a citizen of more than one country — a claim that the archbishop denied.

The U.S., U.K., and EU no longer recognize Lukashenko as the Belarusian president. Canada, the U.K., and the EU have placed sanctions on senior Belarusian figures.

Lukashenko secured a $1.5 billion loan from Russian president Vladimir Putin in December as Putin denounced “external pressure” on Belarus.

Relations between the Holy See and Belarus have been strained over claims the Church in Belarus is being used to exert foreign influence, as well as Archbishop Kondrusiewicz’ exile.

Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, apostolic nuncio to the United Kingdom, acted as a special envoy of Pope Francis to Lukashenko, delivering a letter Dec. 17 with a request regarding Archbishop Kondrusiewicz.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said that when he was finally allowed to cross the border and return to Belarus on Dec. 24 he knelt down, prayed and kissed the ground.

Kondrusiewicz had served as metropolitan archbishop of Minsk since 2007 and as president of the Belarusian bishops’ conference since 2015.

He was consecrated as a bishop by St. John Paul II on Oct. 20, 1989 in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As bishop, Kondrusiewicz founded the Grodno Higher Theological Seminary and reopened about 100 churches that had been closed during the communist persecution, according to the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus.

In his homily on Jan. 1, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz called on Catholics in Belarus to entrust the year ahead to God “so that it may be a time of successful resolution of socio-political and epidemiological crises and a time of blessing that will bring many spiritual fruits to us and our society.”

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Dublin, Ireland, Jul 17, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Documents from the Republic of Ireland’s health department show that abortion services are limited at nine of the country’s 19 maternity hospitals, in part due to conscientious objectors.

In a May 2018 referendum, Irish voters repealed a constitutional amendment recognizing the right to life of unborn children and equal to mothers’ right to life. Legislators then enacted legislation allowing legal abortion.

Ireland now permit medical abortions to be performed by general practitioners through nine weeks of pregnancy. Hospitals are allowed to perform surgical abortions through 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, abortions may be performed in “exceptional circumstances.”

The law permits medical professionals who conscientiously object to abortion to refrain from participation in the procedure; however, doctors who object to abortion must refer women to doctors who will perform them.

A statement from the Department of Health, obtained by TheJournal.ie, says that “the HSE [Health Service Executive] has advised that where conscientious objection has arisen in relation to the provision of termination of pregnancy services, hospital groups are working with the hospitals in question to find an appropriate solution.”

Of the nine maternity hospitals that do not offer full abortion services, five are due to to “operational issues”, and four are related to conscientious objection and recruitment, according to an April update sent to the national health department.

Some of the hospitals are small, and have argued that abortion provision there would be unnecessarily expensive.

South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel, about 30 miles south of Thurles, has “the smallest number of births in the country (900 a year) and maternity services represent a small part of its activities; to establish a service in the hospital will require dedicated clinics, which may have little or no demand”, according to one of the documents.

The HSE added that abortion provision at South Tipperary “would not represent optimal use of scarce resources given the proximity of STGH to other hospitals providing the service.”

The health department has said it is “extremely disappointed that, at this stage, there are still only 10 hospitals providing full ToP (termination of pregnancy) services”.

“From the outset the Minister and the Department have been very clear that government policy is to normalise ToP service provision within our maternity hospitals and that services will be provided from all 19 maternity hospitals,” the Department of Health stated.

“In that context, it is not acceptable that the NWIHP [National Women & Infants Health Programme] should seek to defer introduction of the service on the basis of low demand or because of sufficient regional coverage or, indeed, because of preference to provide services on a networked basis.”

Dr. Trevor Hayes, a consultant obstetrician/gynecologist at St. Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny, maintained at a July 6 pro-life rally in Dublin that health minister Simon Harris is “obsessing with abortion” and is “trying to bully good men and women to get involved in their abortion against their conscience.”

Continued pressure to back abortion would force doctors, nurses and other medical professionals out of medicine and add to “the staffing crisis already crippling the health service,” Hayes predicted.

Hayes is one of several consultant colleagues at St. Luke’s who have told management they would not perform abortions. He told that rally that abortion is “a procedure that helps no one and takes the life of the child … Abortion is not life-saving, it’s life-ending. It’s not health care, and no amount of spin can make it health care.”

The health department’s documents show that “it is unlikely” that abortion service will begin at St. Luke’s General Hospital in 2019.

In May, the Irish bishops’ conference objected to job requirements mandating that certain consultant doctors be willing to participate in abortions, saying the country’s abortion law had promised to safeguard conscience rights for medical professionals.

An advertisement for two consultants, for obstetrics/gynecology and anesthesia, at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin says applicants must be willing to participate in abortions.

“This precondition runs totally counter to a doctor’s constitutional and human right to freedom of conscience,” said the bishops.

The bishops’ conference said such preconditions may rule out the best possible person for the job by eliminating candidates solely because they are unwilling to perform abortions.

“A doctor who is eminently qualified to work as a consultant in these fields is denied employment in these roles because of his/her conscience,” said the bishops.

“Doctors who are pro-life and who may have spent over a decade training in these areas and who may otherwise be the best candidate for these positions are now advised that, should they apply, they would not be eligible for consideration,” they said.

A spokesman for the National Maternity Hospital argued that the specific posts were funded by the HSE for the purpose of abortions.

“They are therefore for individuals willing to contribute to the provision of these services. Other past and future posts are not affected. The conscientious objection guidelines for staff in both hospitals remain unchanged,” the spokesman said, according to RTE.

At least 640 general practitioners in Ireland signed a petition in November objecting to the new obligation of referring patients to other doctors for abortions.

The majority of the country’s 2,500 GPs are unwilling to perform abortions. Only between 4 and 6 percent of GPs have said they would participate in the procedure.

At the July 6 All Ireland Rally for Life, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, said: “I march today because I believe it remains as important as ever to affirm the sanctity of all human life. The direct and intentional taking of the life of any innocent human being is always gravely wrong – we must avoid becoming desensitized to the value of every human life.”

He called for more help for vulnerable women, for mothers and fathers who are in crisis, and for “parents who feel that they have made the wrong choice in having an abortion.”

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