The National Secular Society has condemned as “sinister” reports that the Government has apparently yielded to pressure from the Catholic Church and lifted its whip on voting for its Human Fertility and Embryology Bill. The decision follows a meeting that Catholic MPs from all parties had with Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who told them that they should defy the whip and vote according to Catholic doctrine.
The unofficial leader of the grouping of Catholic MPs is Jim Dobbin, who says that the MPs had “agreed to work more closely with church leaders on political issues”.
The fertility bill, that will be voted on in the new year, is expected to have several key amendments that would give the Catholic Church some of what it wants. One amendment would, for instance, lower the time limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks. Other parts of the Bill would be amended to require fertility clinics to “consider the need for a father” before providing treatment. This was thought to be an attempt to block gay women availing themselves of the service.
By being given a free vote, Catholic Cabinet Ministers could vote against the Bill, but are more likely to abstain. In total there are 64 MPs who are Catholic. Transport secretary Ruth Kelly, well known as a member of the extremist Catholic organisation Opus Dei, has opposed stem cell research proposals and argued against the plans to force Catholic adoption agencies to consider gay couples as parents.
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “We would find it sinister if these MPs were having their votes dictated by the Catholic Church rather than the people who elected them. This meeting with Cardinal Murphy O’Connor, followed swiftly by the lifting of the whip, suggest that the Vatican’s agenda is now being inveigled into parliament and into law making. Yet the Vatican’s policies on so many issues are completely out of step with the opinions and desires of the British public.”
Mr Porteous Wood said: “Naturally MPs should not vote against their conscience but, at the same time, if they are being elected as Catholic MPs with a Catholic agenda they should ensure that the people who elected them were completely aware of that. To be elected on a Labour ticket and then to discard that commitment in favour of religious demands is dishonest. Recent research from Catholics for Choice [see next story] show just how out-of-touch bishops are with the wants of Catholics in the pew.”
The NSS has protested frequently at the tactics of the Catholic Church in pressurising politicians with veiled threats. “It is anti-democratic and undesirable in an open society,” said Mr Porteous Wood. “Politicians in the US have been threatened publicly with the withdrawal of communion and even excommunication unless they changed their stance on abortion to the Vatican hard line. We do not want to see control of democratically elected representatives being exercised by the church, rather than those who elected them.
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