Doctor says Catholics who won't perform abortions face pressure

Published: 2006-10-17

ROME (CNS) -- Catholic obstetricians who respect the dignity of motherhood and the life of the unborn risk disappearing in societies where abortion is legal, said the head of an international group of Catholic obstetricians and gynecologists. Obstetricians who oppose having to perform abortions as part of their training or in their practice at public or private health care facilities sometimes face "a sort of medical totalitarianism" and feel tremendous pressure to "do it this way or not at all," Dr. Robert Walley, founder and executive director of MaterCare International, told Catholic News Service Oct. 12. Walley and some 60 other obstetricians from 14 countries were in Rome Oct. 11-15 as part of the fourth MaterCare International workshop for Catholic women's health specialists. Part of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, MaterCare was founded in 1995 to "serve the culture of life" wherever mothers and their children are neglected or abandoned, said the British-born doctor. This year's workshop looked at ways to protect and promote the dignity of motherhood and practice of obstetrics.

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