{"id":5467,"date":"2014-12-28T22:04:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T06:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5467"},"modified":"2018-03-06T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T21:07:10","slug":"conscientious-objection-to-abortion-catholic-midwives-lose-in-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5467","title":{"rendered":"Conscientious objection to abortion: Catholic midwives lose in Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ukhumanrightsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">UK Human Rights Blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court recently handed down its judgment in an interesting and potentially controversial case concerning the interpretation\u00a0of the conscientious objection clause in the Abortion Act 1967. Overturning the Inner House of the Court of Session&#8217;s ruling, the Court held that two Catholic midwives could be required by their employer to delegate to, supervise and support other staff who were involved in carrying out abortion procedures, as part of their roles as Labour Ward Co-ordinators at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.<\/p>\n<p>We set out the\u00a0background to the case and explained the earlier rulings and their ramifications on this blog\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ukhumanrightsblog.com\/2012\/03\/06\/catholic-midwives-must-continue-indirect-role-in-abortions-despite-human-rights-protections\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/ukhumanrightsblog.com\/2013\/05\/03\/conscientious-objection-to-abortion-catholic-midwives-win-appeal\/\"> here<\/a>. The key question the Supreme Court had to grapple with the meaning of the words &#8220;to participate in any treatment authorised by this Act to which he has a conscientious objection&#8221; in section 4 of the 1967 Act.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The disappearing Article 9 argument<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Somewhat frustratingly (at least from the perspective of the writers of a human rights blog!) an argument based around <a href=\"http:\/\/ukhumanrightsblog.com\/incorporated-rights\/articles-index\/article-9\/\"> Article 9<\/a> of the European Convention \u2013 the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion \u2013 was not really dealt with by the Supreme Court, despite having been trailed in the earlier court proceedings. Lady Hale JSC, who wrote the judgment with which the other Supreme Court Justices agreed, described the point as a &#8220;distraction&#8221; . . . [<a href=\"http:\/\/ukhumanrightsblog.com\/2014\/12\/28\/conscientious-objection-to-abortion-catholic-midwives-lose-in-supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\">Full text<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK Human Rights Blog The Supreme Court recently handed down its judgment in an interesting and potentially controversial case concerning the interpretation\u00a0of the conscientious objection clause in the Abortion Act 1967. Overturning the Inner House of the Court of Session&#8217;s ruling, the Court held that two Catholic midwives could be required by their employer to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5467\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Conscientious objection to abortion: Catholic midwives lose in Supreme Court&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,217,8,295,19,757],"tags":[123,231,237,253,270,1441,316],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-lawsuits","category-legal-commentary","category-religious-freedom","category-repression-of-conscience","category-united-kingdom","tag-connie-wood","tag-mary-doogan","tag-midwives","tag-national-health-service-greater-glasgow-and-clyde","tag-participation","tag-royal-college-of-midwives","tag-scotland"],"yoast_head":"\r\n<title>Conscientious objection to abortion: Catholic midwives lose in Supreme Court - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5467\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conscientious objection to abortion: Catholic midwives lose in Supreme Court - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UK Human Rights Blog The Supreme Court recently handed down its judgment in an interesting and potentially controversial case concerning the interpretation\u00a0of the conscientious objection clause in the Abortion Act 1967. 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