Scotland: online counselling and abortion pills by post. Mgr. Gilbert, with no protection guidelines, can women be forced into abortion?

 

(London) “Women’s health is at risk and there is no way of establishing whether they are actually being coerced into an abortion, since everything takes place online, without following standard protection guidelines”. Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, addressed a strongly worded letter to Health Secretary Jeane Freeman today. “I find the Scottish Government’s decision to allow women experiencing crisis pregnancies to have consultations online or by phone ‘deeply troubling’”, the leader of the Scottish Bishops wrote in the letter. “The fact that abortion pills are sent by mail is also disturbing”. And he added: “I wonder if women are receiving information on all available options, including details of organisations that can help them carry their pregnancies to term”. The letter also refers to a “risk of severe bleeding and sepsis” related to home abortions, and calls it “profoundly distressing that, in the midst of this pandemic, when almost every government is directing its resources towards the preservation of life, especially the weakest and the most vulnerable, the Scottish Government continues to act to suppress the most vulnerable members of our society - the unborn”.
Valentina Bombelli