Archbishop welcomes government query of why doctors not prosecuted

12 Sep 2013

By The Record

Archbishop Peter Smith attends a press conference in Rome in Feb, 2010. PHOTO: CNS/Paul Haring

By Simon Caldwell

An English archbishop praised the British government for seeking clarification of a decision not to prosecute two doctors who agreed to abortions on the grounds of gender.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark issued a statement after Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, questioned the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service, the organization that decides which cases should proceed to court, not to bring criminal cases against the doctors.

“Many people are rightly very concerned about the CPS decision not to prosecute in the case of the doctors who were willing to conduct abortion as a means of gender selection, and I welcome the intervention of the health secretary,” said Archbishop Smith, vice president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and chairman of the bishops’ Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship.

“Abortion is always an injustice to the child who is unwanted, and sex selection through abortion is just one expression of that injustice,” he said in a Sept. 10 statement.

“The existing law should be enforced, but what is needed above all is a soul-searching and honest debate about how our culture and society needs to change if the rights of unborn children are to be protected.”

Hunt announced Sept. 5 that he would write to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, to ask for a clarification of the decision by the CPS. The same day, Jenny Hopkins, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said in statement that although there was “enough evidence to justify bringing proceedings” it would not be in the public interest to do so.

She said the cases would be better dealt with by the General Medical Council, the regulatory body of the medical profession, which has already launched its own investigations. – CNS