According to LifeSiteNews, almost 900 medical professionals have signed the
Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health, launched in 2012 to declare that
abortion is not needed to save women's lives.
The Declaration states, "As
experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynaecology, we
affirm that direct abortion - the purposeful destruction of the unborn child -
is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman. We uphold that there is
a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments
that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment
results in the loss of life of her unborn child. We confirm that the
prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of
optimal care to pregnant women."
Signatory Dr Eoghan de Faoite said there
is a fundamental difference between life saving treatment a woman may need
during pregnancy, and abortion, which is the direct and intentional taking of
the life of the unborn child. He pointed out that through the Dublin
Declaration, obstetricians, gynaecologists, neonatologists, paediatricians and
other doctors from across the specialties of medicine and surgery testify that
a country does not need legalised abortion in order to preserve maternal health
and reduce maternal mortality.
"Let us not underestimate the power of such
a statement," de Faoite stressed. "This is hugely important to all of
us who work to protect women and children from abortion and who seek to make
this cruel injustice made illegal, and unthinkable, right across the world.
Pro-life laws do not jeopardise women's health, but rather they encourage, and
oblige medical professionals to do everything they must do to save a woman's
life in pregnancy and do everything he or she can do to also preserve the life
of the baby. Every pregnancy has two patients that need to be cared for -
mother and child."
Julia Martin
Wife, mother, grandmother, Julia has been engaged in the battle for LIFE since the 1980’s. She believes human life is of ultimate implication because each one is created in the image of the Divine.
Published in the Gisborne Herald 18 October.
