Finland’s Interior Minister has sparked an uproar by sharply criticizing the country’s liberal abortion laws. In a July 6 speech to a Lutheran missions gathering in Kankaanpää in southwestern Finland, Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen lamented that animals have more protection in Finland than unborn human babies.
Citing Acts 5:29, she also noted that one may face situations “… where we must weigh our actions, whether we are ready to go against public opinion, peer pressure and even law if these contradict the Word of God.” The archbishop and two bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (CoF) wasted no time in declaring that she does not speak for that Church.
In her speech, Mrs. Räsänen noted that Finnish law provides that animals being slaughtered must be killed painlessly, but that Finnish politicians will not even discuss the pain that fetuses can feel during abortion. Räsänen, a medical doctor, says that a fetus at the age at which Finland allows abortion is not a piece of tissue without emotion, but an individual who can feel pain.
Räsänen, who is also national chairman of the Christian Democrat Party (Kristillisdemokraatit), further declared that healthcare workers should have the right to refuse to participate in abortions and euthanasia. She complained that Finland and Sweden are the only two countries in Western Europe in which healthcare workers do not have the right to refuse to assist in an abortion on grounds of personal conscience.
In a newspaper interview, Räsänen conceded that a majority of Finns no longer believe in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and that the faithful are increasingly obliged to row against the stream. The Interior Minister expressed her concern about the favorable attitudes in Finland toward abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
CoF Archbishop Kari Mäkinen emphasized that Räsänen was not expressing the CoF’s viewpoint. Mäkinen tweeted, “One may agree with her or be of a different opinion, but her views should not be confused with the Church’s position. No more than the opinion of any other church member you might meet on the street.”
CoF Bishop Björn Vikström found her statement that sometimes one must put the Bible above civil law “especially problematic” in view of her position as a government minister. Her Interior Ministry’s responsibilities include church affairs. Vikström was particularly critical of Räsänen ’s assertion that sometimes one should obey the Bible rather than civil law.
Regarding the right of healthcare workers to abstain from participating in abortions and euthanasia, a right supported by the Council of Europe and the Finnish doctors’ federation, Vikström again distanced himself saying, “We must agree on the rules of the game and legislation before one can act.”
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