Inconstancy, Thy Name Is...

With amendments to the abortion laws soon to be voted upon in the Commons, the Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff has dispatched the usual apocalyptic warnings to his subordinates. As a member of a church which opposes the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, the Most Reverend Peter Smith now worries about "permitting abortion on demand without any health-related justification". This concern for people's health - even women's - is an encouraging sign, and is certainly an improvement on the charmingly off-planet propaganda which the Vatican has used in the past to help its message penetrate. Even more delightfully, as a member of a church which has argued consistently and often hysterically against raising the legal time limit, the Most Reverend Peter Smith now worries about "women having less time to think before abortion". Intellectual honesty and moral rigour of the Williams-Sentamu brand is, we rejoice to observe, by no means confined to the Church of England.