Monday, July 07, 2008

Ruth Kelly should be ashamed to call herself a Catholic (Contribution)

It would appear that Ruth Kelly's Roman Catholic conscience is clear after securing permission to miss the Commons vote on the Human Embryology Bill on Monday.

Her friends in the Commons have applauded her courage in resisting Gordon Brown's diktat that all Labour MPs, irrespective of their religious beliefs, support the Bill.

Brown, acknowledging the depth of her feelings, has permitted Kelly leave of absence and she will attend EU meetings in Brussels instead.

The hypocrisy of it all. Let's be clear. If Kelly is true to her beliefs - they are so deeply held that she is a member of the Opus Dei movement - she could not possibly deliberately contrive to miss the vote.

She would be in the Commons to make a stand against this legislation, despite the three-line whip for Labour MPs.

It's not just the so-called Frankenstein science stuff, which is directly against church teaching.

The Bill also enshrines the right of women to abort a child at 28 weeks and at full-term - 39 weeks - if there is a suspicion of disability such as Down's Syndrome or a cleft palate.

So while Kelly is swanning around Brussels attending meetings that are hardly a matter of life and death, back in Westminster MPs will be voting on issues that are exactly that. Kelly's conscience is as porous as a sponge.

Yes, I'm biased. I spent the first two years of my life in a Catholic children's home in Cheltenham because a highly principled single woman - my birth mother - decided to go ahead with her pregnancy in a climate overtly hostile to single mums. She doubtless risked social exile. I imagine she lied to her family about her terrible secret. They may still not know to this day.

But for her the risk was worth it, because she believed, as a good Catholic Irish girl, that abortion was a sin, a crime, and she could not be party to it. There must be thousands such as me who owe our lives to these brave women. Their principles were not transferable, unlike Kelly's Eurostar ticket to Brussels. This is not an academic debating issue. You either feel it in your heart or you don't.

Of course Kelly would be forced to resign from the Cabinet if she voted against the Bill. But, on a personal level, her standing would have soared above the civil liberties martyr David Davis, because she would be giving up a Cabinet job rather than the expectation of one.

And much more importantly, she would have been speaking up for the millions of voters who are in despair that, despite the advances in medical technology since the last abortion vote in 1990, MPs have refused to change the upper limit.

I'm sure Ruth Kelly takes her Cabinet responsibilities seriously. But her trip to Brussels makes a mockery of her so-called convictions.

I'm equally sure that she is a good and loving mother. But the next time she talks to her children about what is right and what is wrong, I wonder if she will feel at least a pang of guilt.

After all, she has put her Cabinet job before the other children. The unborn ones.
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