'Cash for babies' instead of abortion

Sydney
16 February 2003

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'Cash for babies' instead of abortion

Bishop Patrick Dunne with some of the 'saved' babies

By Johanna Bennett

A Scottish baby support scheme has seen the birth in the past five years of more than 500 babies who might otherwise have been aborted - including a record 16 sets of twins last year.

The 'cash for babies' scheme is the offspringof Scotland's Cardinal Thomas Winning who set it up to help financially-strapped mothers-to-be who might otherwise feel compelled to end their pregnancies.

The scheme has helped mothers as young as 12 and 13 - the United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the Western world - as well as poorer older mothers.

The oldest mother helped last year was 46.

Women aged over 40 sometimes choose to abort for fear family finances cannot support another child.

The cardinal's scheme has seen the birth of 526 babies, with 109 born last year alone.

The Winning baby scheme is one of a number of such schemes initiated in recent times by the Catholic Church, including a similar New York scheme and another nearer home in Auckland.

Cardinal John O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, initiated his scheme in 1990. It led to a new order - The Sisters of Life - being set up to help the mothers concerned. A similar order has also been set up in Scotland.

The Catholic Weekly carried the story of Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn's initiative in 2001.

The bishop was inundated with thousands of phone calls after announcing his diocese would help "any woman regardless of creed or circumstances and without conditions attached" who needed practical help to continue with her pregnancy.

With his help 38 babies were born who might not otherwise have been.

One mother said the decision to give birth was "the hardest choice of my life and also the best".

Fr Tom Euteneuer, president of Human Life International commented at the time that the bishop'sdecision was 'extraordinary'; but for the pro-life movement to be credible we have to support women.

"If we are going to say that pregnant women should choose life, we have tobe behind them 100 per cent and give them the help they need so they are not driven to abortion," hesaid.

Another reason to support such innovative schemes is the life of the mothers themselves; there is growing evidence that abortion can lead to suicide.

A 2001 US study bythe Elliot Institute in Springfield, Illinois, found women who had aborted were 2.6 per cent more likely to commit suicide than the national average.

And a University of Minnesota study found that a teenage girl is 10 times more likely to attempt suicide if she has had an abortion in the previous six months.