Cherie Blair: Change Catholic teaching on contraception

August 31, 2009

Addressing the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cherie Blair has again called upon the Church to change her perennial teaching on contraception. “If you look at what progress women have made in the world, one of the reasons they have been able to make progress is because they have been able to control their fertility,” said the wife of the former British prime minister. “I personally don't think there is anything wrong with that, and indeed without being able to control that I wouldn't have been able to achieve the things that I've been able to do. I think it's a really important issue and I would prefer it if the Catholic Church took a more positive attitude towards contraception because I think there's a lot of difference between preventing a life coming about and actually extinguishing a life when it has come about.”

A spokesman for the Church in Scotland defended Catholic teaching after hearing Mrs. Blair’s remarks. Referring to the abortifacient nature of some contraceptives, he said that extinguishing a life “is exactly what the morning-after pill does, while the conventional pill can potentially do the same.”

 

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Further information:

• Blair: end Church’s hard line on birth control (The Herald)