The bishops’ conference submitted a letter to Norway’s Ministry of Health and Care outlining its objections to the proposal, stating that it fails to consider the interests of the preborn child, establishes an ambiguous concept of human life, and undermines the country’s traditional values.
“The law proposal cancels the fetus as a subject entitled to rights,” the bishops wrote, according to an unofficial translation published by the website Coram Fratribus.
“The consideration of abortion has, in the strict sense of this word, a tragic dimension,” they continued. “In every case an accomplished abortion is an occasion for grief, a loss to the community. Only on this basis, such is our conviction, can our society rightly consider the welfare of all parties concerned in a way that is responsible and rational.”
If the commission succeeds in extending elective abortions by six weeks, the bishops warned that it develops an “ambiguity” on how society understands life. The abortion law, they noted, would treat the preborn child “as a growth on the women’s body, an organic parasite.”
On the other hand, a woman who intends to give birth to her preborn child “may see a fabulous video of a 17-weeks-old ‘baby’ ‘in a very active period’” with the current technology.
“We are able, at one and the same time, to regard an 18-week-old fetus as a nonperson and as a beloved baby displaying characteristic personality,” the bishops noted. “The criterion of difference in discernment is the degree to which the baby is wanted.”
Credit: Source link