The Catholic Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, has said the Abortion Bill has no moral force and if it becomes law must be resisted. “Catholics have no obligation whatsoever to obey this law,” he told the Irish Independent.

Bishop Doran said the fundamental presupposition is that citizens should always obey a just law. “But this is an unjust law and therefore it has no moral force,” he said.

Bishop Doran said resistance should not simply be theoretical: he cited the example of the Dunnes Stores workers’ boycott of South African goods and said the tradition of “constructive resistance” was well established. He said doctors, nurses and midwives who oppose abortion should unite. “They will have to stick together because if they don’t they’ll be picked off individually. But what we would be saying is that they as a substantial body [should] simply refuse to participate or to refer.”

He called on teachers, not just Catholic teachers in Catholic schools, “but people of integrity who believe absolutely that this is a human being” to reflect their beliefs in their teaching. “They can’t just roll over and say ‘we’ll teach that it’s just a cluster of cells’ or ‘this is OK because the law says it is OK’. You would be calling on teachers to be consistent with the truth in their teaching.” He also said people working in the pharmaceutical industry may not want to be involved in making drugs used in abortions. He said if such workers were to say they didn’t want to be involved in making drugs that are designed to kill, “now that takes courage”.