Category: Countries

UN Special Rapporteur Favours of a Right to Conscientious Objection

News Release 

European Centre for Law and Justice

On the occasion of a conference organized by the ECLJ at UN headquarters in Geneva, Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, spoke in favor of the right of medical staff to refuse to participate in performing an abortion or euthanasia. He mentioned the case of a midwife who was harshly sentenced in Sweden for having refused to participate in an abortion and was forced into “professional exile.”

He considers that this right, based on freedom of conscience, should extend to the medical staff directly involved in the matter, as long as their objection is well-founded on a strong and deep conviction. . . [Full text]

 

Seven in 10 Italian gynaecologists refuse to carry out abortions

Figure has risen from 59% in 2005 and has been accompanied by increase in reported miscarriages

The Guardian

Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Pamela Duncan, Alberto Nardelli, Delphine Robineau

Seven in 10 Italian gynaecologists refuse to carry out abortions on the grounds of conscientious objection, according to official government figures.

The rise – which saw the proportion of those objecting go from 59% in 2005 to 70% in 2013 – has been accompanied by a steady increase in reported miscarriages, trends that some doctors say are linked. They suggest more women are seeking abortions in clinics that are not legally providing them or are inducing abortions themselves.

“Women are getting abortions, but doing it illegally, because we know there are so many who are arriving at our clinic who have a quote-unquote spontaneous abortion [or miscarriage]. They probably took a pill … we understand [these to be an] illegal abortion,” said Silvana Agatone, a gynaecologist in Rome.  .  .[Full text]