The article implicitly suggests that Catholic health care providers are being unsociably difficult, presumably for alluding to the moral difficulties of providing emergency obstetric services in a state would allow abortion without question up to 6 month gestation and longer with two medical signatures.

And so they should.

You would not need be a Catholic to have the self same difficulty…….

I also think the “What Would Jesus Do” title is somewhat rhetoric, and would in no way affect Catholic policy. A lot of contemporary Catholic policy seems to fly in the face of Jesus’s teachings, supported by various interpretations of the Bible. My understanding was always that Jesus accepted all people; hung out with prostitutes, lepers, the social pariahs of the time. Now, Catholics openly vilify gays, and worship riches in ways that would have deeply offended their founder, who overturned tax collectors tables in the temple. I’m not going to go any further with this, except to say that I don’t associate the Catholic Church with an organisation trying dilligently to uphold Jesus’s teachings, rather as an organisation trying desperately to maintain control, by manipulating opinion in any way that can support their agenda.

When one looks at the “flexibility” that the Catholic church approaches other issues such as war, the forgiveness of sin (indulgences) and the more outrageous effects of capitalism on the poor, I’m sure they will be able to find an accomodation with this piece of legislation without shutting down the system. A doctor who is not willing to perform an abortion because of concscience has a duty of care to that patient which can be discharged by a referral. No one is asking them to refer the patient for an abortion, they are being asked to refer the patient to someone who can help them. This hysterical reaction to the issue is a good measure of how desperate they are.

I think the catholic health system is fantastic. I have been a beneficiary of it and I think that those who work in it and actually run it will probably cope without the advice of politically inspired Bishops. That,s the main problem. The organisation is top heavy. Noone down the bottom is allwed to think for themselves. The doctors consciences aren’t theirs, they are the churches!

One of His many comments on children was recorded by His disciple Matthew, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’

King Herod, on the other hand, is infamous for making a political decision, and slaughtering many hundreds of little children - though nowhere near as many as are killed in Australia every year.

Whose example should we be following?

Speak for yourself you idiot.