Catholic boost for Tories over abortion
The leader of the Catholic church last night waded into the general election debate by seeming to suggest that Catholics should vote Conservative over the issue of abortion.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor commended Tory leader Michael Howard’s comments at the weekend that he would reduce the legal limit for having an abortion from 24 to 20 weeks.
“It is very important that this debate has been opened into the public arena, both in the lead-up to and after the election,” the cardinal said.
“Abortion, for Catholics, is a very key issue, we are totally opposed to it. The policy supported by Mr Howard is one that we would also commend, on the way to a full abandonment of abortion.”
Speaking at the weekend, Prime Minister Tony Blair said the debate on abortion “would continue” but said there were no plans to change the abortion limit at the moment.
However, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said that this debate and that on other “life issues” needed to be widened.
“At the moment there are a lot of quangos and bodies that advise governments that this or that is the better way to do things,” he said.
“We live in a very utilitarian society, what is useful is not always what is right for society and sometimes is very wrong.”
He denied he was giving his support to one particular political party but said that Labour was no longer an obvious choice for British Catholics.
“There has been a notion in the past that Catholics would be more in support of the Labour party because they were working-class people,” he said.
“Now I’m not so sure that will be quite so true today, the Labour Party has developed.”
