ABORTION threatened as a general election issue last night, as Labour and the Conservatives continued their competition for the moral high ground in British politics.
The Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, is to launch further anti crime measures, in response to the campaign by Mrs Frances Lawrence for a national movement to tackle violence and promote good citizenship. The Prime Minister, Mr Major, and the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, earlier endorsed the call by Mrs Lawrence, whose headmaster husband was murdered at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops' Conference raised the political temperature further, with a statement of Catholic social teaching widely interpreted as an endorsement of Mr Blair's "New Labour".
The Bishop of Leeds, Dr David Konstant - who chaired the working party report commissioned by the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales - denied it was an invitation to the electorate to vote in any particular way. But the report with headline concerns for the rights of trade unionists, talk of a "just wage" and apparent enthusiasm for a minimum wage, coupled with doubts about "trickle down" economics and pro Europeanism made uncomfortable reading for government ministers.
On Europe, the report says local loyalties and commitments should be fostered but should not be set in opposition to wider expressions of solidarity: "It is possible to be both British and European."
While stopping short of advocating a minimum wage, the report says: "Employers have a duty to pay a just wage, the level of which should take account of the needs of the individual and not just his or her value to the so called labour market. If employers do not do this voluntarily, Catholic social teaching would allow the State to make them do so by means of a statutory minimum wage, either nationally or in some sectors.
In a critical reference to company "down sizing", the church deplored the dumping of human "social capital" as "a prevalent cause of social injustice.
But the moral linchpin of the report was a warning of "the alarming extent to which Britain has become a particular example of what the present Pope called a `culture of death'.
Raising other ethical issues prompted by developments in medical technology treatment of those judged to be brain dead, elderly patients with terminal illness, human embryos conceived outside the womb - the report says: "The prevalence of abortion, as well as being an evil in itself, has led to the widespread abandonment of fundamental moral principles, even in areas where their influence is most needed."