JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Appointment of leading abortionist to head Savita inquiry bodes ill

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Appointment of leading abortionist to head Savita inquiry bodes ill

Following the sad death of Savita Halappanavar and her unborn child in Galway, Ireland's Health Services Executive (HSE) has announced that Professor Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, the head of obstetrics and gynecology at St Georges Hospital, London, is to head the HSE's inquiry into Savita's death. This bodes ill for the outcome of the inquiry, as Sir Sabaratnam is the president-elect of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), which is one of the world's leading advocates of abortion. In 2009, he called upon governments to make abortion a legal right. And in 2007 he co-authored a paper which defended secret abortions without parental knowledge or consent for girls under 16.

We therefore must double our prayers for Ireland and especially for our pro-life colleagues, who are having to deal with a virtual tsunami of anti-life vitriol unleashed by the pro-abortion lobby and its fellow-travellers in the mainstream media.

By the way of summary, here are some key points about the Savita case:

the full details of this case are not yet known, so we must await the investigations which have been launched before we can make definitive comments
miscarriage and infection can be managed by proper medical treatment
abortion is not medicine - it does not treat or cure any pathology
many women have died from infection or other causes because of supposedly safe and legal abortions.

Here are the statements and blogs SPUC has published about the Savita case:

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.