PERTH, WA: May 2, 1991
Registered by Australia Post P ublication No. WAR 0202
Last chance to enrol for the big convention
Number 2737
• Page 3
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Beware VATICAN: ABORTION PILL A THREAT TO HUMAN LIFE
VATICAN CITY: A Vatican report to bishops worldwide has condemned the French abortion pill RU-486 as "a new serious threat to human life".
"RU-486 represents a technical step forward in an area that did not need it," said the report, claiming that the pill was developed not out of concern for women's health but from a "struggle for supremacy in the abortion industry" between those who favour surgical abortion and those who support pharmacological means. RU-486, made by the French drug company Roussel-Uclaf, is the popular name for the drug mifepristone, which induces abortion in the earliest stages of pregnancy when used with a synthetic prostaglandin. The pill currently is used only in France, where officials recently announced a ban on its use by women who smoke heavily or are more than 35 years old.
The ban was prompted by the death of a 31-yearold woman who smoked heavily and had a heart attack following treatment with the drug to end her 13th pregnancy. Spanish bioethicist Dr Gonzalo Herranz who prepared the report says the pill "requires as much or more medical support than surgical abortion which makes the illusions fade about RU-486 as an easy means of population control". On the psychological level, Dr Herranz rejected claims that the "emotional impact" of the abortion is lessened when the woman does not have to go to a clinic or receive anesthesia for the procedure. "It is the woman herself who, all alone and urgently, takes on the whole psychological and ethical burden of being the sole agent of abortion," the report said. "De-medicalised abortion leaves the woman abandoned to herself and in the uncomfortable company of fear, pain and the risk of haemorrhage."
On the ethical aspects of the RU-486, Dr Herranz said the circumstances of an abortion — whether surgically or by the pill — do not "modify substantially the moral gravity of the action". He criticised efforts to mute the ethical impact of discussions on abortion by disguising its terminology. "The wicked and sinful nature of abortion is annulled when the fact of destroying human life remains hidden under the veil of new and innocent expressions" such as `micro-aspiration', 'menstrual extraction', 'interruption' or 'menstrual pill', the report said. "It is considered impolite and in bad taste to speak, with regard to abortion, about killing, assassinating or destroying human beings since that terminology indicates that the values have not been grasped of individual autonomy, the right to choose, progressive humanisation, population control and ecology," it added.
Pole vaults to the top The silver jubilee tournament last week of Perth's clergy golfing and other sportsmen got a shock when a tyro P3le only recently into the game leapt into the limelight held so far by legendary Aussie and Irish competitors. Salvatorian Father Zygmunt Wloczek (left) is pictured showing the association's foundation captain Father John O'Dwyer the Archbishop Prendiville trophy he received for his 89 best net score over 36 holes. • How the other performed — see Page 7.
Change for Holy days of obligation Only Christmas Day (Mondays to Saturdays) and Assumption on (Tuesdays to Fridays) will be extra holy days of obligation from the start of 1992 in Australia. All Saints Day's obligation is dropped entirely
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Were raising the standard. DL 1631
and Ascension is moved to the following Sunday in a latest decision by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. amendments The change the 1985 decision that All Saints Day was an obligation only if it
occurred on Tuesday to Friday, as is still the case with the Assumption. The move of Ascension to a Sunday follows what has happened to the other feasts of the universal calendar — Epi-
phany, Corpus Christi and Peter and Paul which were celebrated on their dates January 6 and June 29 or a particular Thursday. The latest decision was taken by the Australian bishops in 1989 and it
has taken until now for the decision to be ratified by the Vatican. The 1989 amendments followed a review of the first changes made for Australia in 1985. Bishops' spokesman,
Bishop Pat Power, said the bishops realised that because of working commitments only a half of the Sunday congregations could get to the weekday Masses and it was a question of not leaving such people in
bad faith over their obligations. On the other hand the retention of the Assumption as a holy day in some situations kept up the tradition of keeping at least one major feast of Our Lady as a day of obligation.
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