Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are calling for compulsory school-lessons to combat opposition to the Lisbon treaty, including claims that the treaty could result in abortion bans being over-turned. The calls are being led by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) bloc and by Mario David, a Portuguese MEP. Mr David said:"All the debates about the constitution and then the Lisbon Treaty showed a great deal of lying, cheating and mistrust about the EU. In Ireland people were told there was going to be abortion across the EU, that young men would be conscripted into a European Army. This was a bunch of lies."First, let me be clear: SPUC neither supports nor opposes what is called "the European project" i.e. further integration of European countries in various ways via the EU. SPUC cannot take a position one way or another on that because it is outside our remit. Our concerns, criticisms or opposition to any aspect of the EU system relate only to their impact in the field of medicalised killing (abortion, embryo research, euthanasia) and related issues (sexual ethics).
Secondly, tightly-argued and expertly-researched legal arguments were put by pro-lifers as to the possible impact of the Lisbon treaty upon abortion laws in Ireland and other EU member-states. To dismiss those arguments as lying and cheating is absurd. It is also untenable, as organs of both the EU (such as the European parliament and European Commission) and the Council of Europe (such as its parliamentary assembly) have many times voted against pro-life and pro-family values, acting outside their own remits. It is no wonder that many pro-lifers mistrust the European institutions.
Lastly, as Anthony Ozimic, SPUC communications manager, has commented this morning: "It would be a totalitarian abuse of power to use the school system to brain-wash pupils into rejecting the well-founded concerns by pro-life groups regarding the Lisbon treaty."
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