Last year at a mass one day the sermon was replaced with the monologue of a child who had been aborted. I was so angry about the emotive manipulation that I came as close as I ever have to walking out.

I have several problems with the almost violent objections that the church has to abortion.

The first is a biological one. I do not understand why the moment of conception should be considered so overwhelmingly significant. Surely it needs to be seen in the light of what is happening in the lives of the individuals concerned?  I can understand why the church teaches a responsible attitude to intercourse: from little acorns  . . . . I can also understand why it teaches the holiness of the moment of conception - to the Christian.  But it needs to remember that such notions have no meaning to those without faith: the faith has to come first, not the morals.

My second is that it seems to value the new life over the old one: if the mother is at serious risk then why isnt an abortion justifiable?  How can you weigh one life up against another when it isnt your own life that is at stake?

Following on from that, it upsets me when I see the church meddling with the lives of those who have no faith and, in this context, with the lives of women who have no faith and who may already be in a terrible and vulnerable predicament. 

It isnt to say that the church should not proclaim loudly the holiness of life, and teach that abortions should not be for selfish reasons but then it must allow people to make up their own minds - especially those women who have to make life-changing decisions on sometimes profoundly difficult and complex grounds. 

At that point, when the woman is at her most vulnerable,  the church needs above all to be both compassionate and gentle, not censorious, vindictive and even aggressive.

I read that Daniel Maguire (a professor in Mikwaukee) has been censured over his point of view regarding abortion (presumably by the American Catholic Church) and I decided to check out a little of his writing on this subject.

The only moral decision for an abortion is a pro-life decision. There are many life values and sometimes other life values supersede the value of a fetus.

Cases from real life speak louder than books.

Case # 1: A woman is two months pregnant when she discovers she has cancer and needs chemotherapy. The chemotherapy would be fatal to the fetus. She decides on an abortion. If you were that woman or if this woman were your wife, your sister, or your daughter, would you be pro-choice for that abortion?

Case # 2: A woman, in spite of her best contraceptive efforts is pregnant. She has a serious heart condition and two physicians tell her that continuing the pregnancy would be likely to cause her death. She choose to abort. If you were that woman or if this woman were your wife,your sister, or your daughter, would you be pro-choice for that abortion?

Case # 3: A woman who suffers from a serious bi-polar condition discovers she is pregnant. The medicine she requires to be functional would damage the development of the fetus. She chooses abortion. If you were that woman or if this woman were your wife, your sister, or your daughter, would you be pro-choice for that abortion?

If you were at the clinic when these women came for their abortion, would you join the pickets in insulting them and calling them murderers? Or would you see women who made serious decisions for pro-life abortions?

I know what my own answer would be.