Lord Alton: RCM's call for abortion up-to-birth 'a complete travesty'

British Parliamentarian Lord Alton of Liverpool has called the decision by the Royal College of Midwives to campaign for the legalisation of abortion up-to-birth a "complete travesty" that brings the "noble midwifery profession into disrepute."

In a statement released today by the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, Lord Alton said: "This decision by the activists who control the Royal College of Midwives - and who are not themselves midwives - to use the Royal College to campaign for the legalisation of abortion up-to-birth is a complete travesty. It brings the noble midwifery profession into disrepute. It underlines how irrational the push for abortion rights has become when those responsible for bringing new human lives into the world should now be coerced into killing babies at the moment of birth.

"The RCM's support for the BPAS campaign, decided without consulting its members, will undermine the confidence of expectant mothers in the women who deliver their babies.

"And, as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of laws which in the UK have led to eight million abortions, surely we should pause to question activism which exalts the false notion of individual freedom, autonomy and choice over the inviolable right to life of every human being, especially the voiceless and vulnerable unborn child."

On May 6, the Royal College of Midwives issued a statement supporting a campaign run by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service calling for the legalisation of abortion up-to-birth for any reason, as well as the limitation of conscience rights for midwives, and the extension of the Abortion Act 1967 to Northern Ireland.

Abortion up to birth would include sex-selective abortion and abortion of babies with disabilities. Only China, North Korea, Vietnam and Canada have such permissive abortions laws. It also comes at a time when, according to a 2012 poll, only 2% of women want the time limit to be extended to more than 24 weeks in contrast to 59% of women who favoured a reduction in time limits.

The Royal College, whose chief executive, Cathy Warwick, is also head of BPAS's board of trustees, did not consult its members before adopting this extreme position."

Many hundreds of of midwives, of all faiths and none, and around 15,000 others have already signed a 'Not in our name' petition accusing Professor Warwick of a 'betrayal' of the profession.

Sally Carson, a midwife from Chester wrote in The Spectator: "The RCM's position has absolutely no mandate. It has no basis in the purposes of the Royal College, the ethic of midwifery, the views of the vast majority of women, or the consensus of midwives. Rather, it is utterly unrepresentative of all these things. That is why I signed the Not In Our Name open letter and am supporting the accompanying public petition and campaign: to state publicly that neither the support of the BPAS campaign nor the new position paper speaks in our name as midwives and as members of the RCM.

"In taking this new and radical policy, the RCM is failing not only British midwives, but the women and children we are called to serve. I call upon anyone reading to support us in our attempt to call them back to the humane principles on which our profession should be based."

To sign the Not In Our Name petition, see: http://notinourname.co/