Slovakia loses attempt to enshrine abortion conscientious objection clause. Beware the EU.

The controversial clause would allow Catholics to refuse to act if their conscience considered it against their faith and morals.

Slovakia's Christian Democrat party, the KDH, today quit the governing coalition after the country’s prime minister refused to adopt a Catholic conscientious objection clause as part of a treaty with the Vatican.

The EU legal panel said that in principle "certain religious organisations" should have the right not to perform "certain activities where this would conflict with [their] ethos or belief."

However, the experts added "It is important the exercise of this right does not conflict with the rights of others, including the right of all women to receive certain medical services or counselling without any discrimination."

The legal panel's report said "There is a risk that the recognition of a right to exercise objection of conscience in the field of reproductive healthcare will make it in practice impossible or very difficult for women to receive advice or treatment...especially in rural areas."

And again the “reproductive health care” codeword for killing babies,
performing intercourse in a Petri dish, injecting sperm into women from
anonymous men as if we were barnyard cattle, and distributing pills that end
life the 2 months of “mornings after” it begins. In most procedures this is clearly not
"reproductive", and in the case of injecting sperm, unfit to human dignity.

The Guardian reports that Bratislava has come under EU fire for signing a 2003 draft treaty with the Roman Catholic church, allowing doctors in catholic hospitals to refuse to carry out abortions.

The EU’s Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, a group of member state analysts created by the European Commission, has indicated Slovakia could be "violating its obligations" as an EU member, according to the UK paper.

The Slovak-Vatican "concordat" would enable health workers in hospitals founded by the catholic church to refer to "conscience" grounds in saying no to women demanding abortion or in vitro fertilisation (IVF).