> The Catholic Church policy against contraception has been in a stage of "benign neglect" for most of the time since Pope Paul VI

"Benign neglect" is not good enough. That's merely another phrase for COP-OUT. Don't-look-at-it-and-hope-it-will-quietly-take-care-of-itself. This is not the same thing as having the courage/honesty to make a clear ruling and take responsibility for it. They could change it in the morning if they really wanted to.

There are still many people in thrall to the Church - especially here (Ireland) - who are bound by such outdated, intrusive edicts. They go on having marriage-straining babies they neither want nor can afford, sometimes at the risk of health. And don't count on being able to get a termination even if it's life-threatening. Remember what just happened in Galway.*

"Benign neglect" is ignoring the problem, NOT ADDRESSING IT. It only sweeps it under the carpet, out of sight. Like misbehaving priests.


*Savita Halappanavar died after developing septicaemia from a miscarriage which lasted almost three days. 

The baby's heartbeat stopped on the Wednesday. "I got a call on Wednesday night that Savita's heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU," Mr Halappanavar said. "Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill." Some of Savita's organs stopped functioning and she died on Sunday 28 October. An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times. Praveen Halappanavar said staff at University Hospital Galway told them Ireland was "a Catholic country".

"University Hospital Galway is to carry out an internal investigation… [They stated that] 'Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group wishes to emphasise that the facts of this tragic case have yet to be established; that is the purpose of the review.'" From BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20321741


Oh. They're going to investigate *themselves*. That'll be enlightening.

Erm… the "facts of the case" are that a woman with a three-days' dead fetus inside her was refused a termination and died of internal poisoning.