"Two Dunblane massacres a day in our country going on and on". Describing abortion on Thursday, the head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland adopted a shrill tone and rough tactics more often found in the US. Mimicking the ploy used against the presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, Cardinal Keith O'Brien questioned whether MPs supporting abortion rights should continue receiving communion, a position that might seem hard to square with his regard for the redemption of sinners.
The Catholic church remains a formidable lobby. Last autumn it orchestrated a letter-writing campaign to MPs on a scale that cowed the government into giving up on plans to improve the mix of pupils in faith schools. This year it also came close to blowing a hole through gay-rights legislation when it demanded an exemption for religious adoption agencies. Of course, the church is a free association with every right to lobby - as it did to good end, for example, on the issue of developing-world debt. On abortion, however, it must be resisted.
Cardinal O'Brien's view that the smallest cluster of embryonic cells is the moral equal of a fully formed child is extreme - there are parallels with an animal-liberation campaigner demanding full human rights not only for chimps but also for snails. Yet he may hold the position sincerely, and as an assertion of the absolute it cannot be dismissed in logic. It is hard to imagine, however, that he cannot see that the grief and fear engendered by the 1996 mass murder at Dunblane gives it dimensions that make direct comparison with the disposal of unwanted foetuses inappropriate. Does he really believe that the two are equivalent, or is he using emotive words to grab attention and remind a Scottish political system in flux that his church is a force to be reckoned with?
Regardless of what is made of the cardinal's abstract moralising, his argument for changing the law unravels on practical grounds. Making abortion illegal does not prevent it from happening, but drives it underground where it is dangerous to women. Mike Leigh's film Vera Drake made the point powerfully in regard to the past but, despite the impression the church gives, women still struggle to get the terminations they require - especially now that increasing numbers of doctors are refusing to get involved, as the Royal College of Obstetricians has recently warned.
A better service would eliminate waits of up to eight weeks, reducing the need for the late abortions that arouse the deepest anxieties. At the same time, the annual total of around 200,000 abortions might be reduced if contraceptive services were more comprehensive. Cardinal O'Brien should give that some thought.
