CNA Newsroom, Sep 7, 2022 / 09:02 am
A Catholic Member of Parliament who was appointed yesterday to the role of Health Secretary in the UK has come under fire for her pro-life views.
Following the announcement that Liz Truss, the previous Foreign Secretary, was to replace Boris Johnson as the UK’s new Prime Minister, it was later announced that Therese Coffey had accepted the new role of Health Secretary, prompting scrutiny from some quarters about the influence of her Catholic faith.
Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, told the BBC that she was deeply concerned about the appointment, given that Coffey recently voted against making at-home abortion pills permanently available to women in England and Wales.
She said that Coffey’s vote went “against the advice of leading medical bodies including Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives and the BMA.” She added: “To have a health secretary who would place their personal beliefs above expert clinical guidance is deeply concerning."