Differences have emerged between Catholic bishops in England and Wales over a Channel 4 documentary planned for later this month which will broadcast an abortion in its entirety. The programme, My Foetus, is to be transmitted on April 20th at 11 p.m.
Last Sunday's Observer newspaper quoted a spokesman for the Archbishop of Birmingham, Most Rev Vincent Nichols, as saying "any film that shows an abortion is abhorrent to Catholics".
However, yesterday Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff,chairman of the Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said the documentary "could prove a powerful anti-abortion message".
"Television images of an abortion, disturbing and repulsive as they undoubtedly would be, could prove a powerful anti-abortion message, highlighting the full horrors of abortion. The truth of what is being done out of the public gaze is the true scandal of abortion. Every day in England and Wales there are 481 abortions on average," the archbishop said.
A spokesman for the Irish Bishops' Conference declined to comment on the programme yesterday, as he hadn't seen it yet, but said "the Catholic Church teaches that life is sacred from the moment of conception and that therefore abortion is wrong in all instances".
In his statement yesterday, issued through the communications office of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Smith reiterated the point about the sacredness of human life from conception. Regarding the programme, he said "everyone, especially women, has a right to know what abortion really involves. If the tide of public opinion were to be turned by these disturbing images, it would be for the common good.
"What Channel 4 plans to show in this programme is the killing of one unborn child. But, tragically, abortion has become one of the most common surgical procedures performed in Britain."
He noted that recent figures for Britain showed that "almost one in four (23 per cent) of all pregnancies in Britain now ends in abortion".
"This shocking abortion figure rises to more than one in three (36 per cent) of pregnancies in women under 20."