In a letter to be read to more than 8000 parishioners at services in the Otago-Southland diocese tomorrow, Bishop Campbell said the pleas of concerned Southlanders opposed to the Southland District Health Board's plans to establish abortion services at Southland Hospital had gone unheeded.
"Let us continue to pray and raise our voices in the private and public arena and in our wider community.
"Let our voices and pleas be heard by our politicians and minister of health.
"We pray that members of the [board] and its management will hear our voice and reject this licence ..."
Catholic opposition to "the evil of abortion" was well-known and the Church saw it as the greatest human rights issue confronting New Zealand today, he said.
At present, Southland women travel to Dunedin for abortions.
Southland anti-abortion campaigners say they only found out by accident the board was planning to offer the service in Invercargill.
The board has since advertised for a midwife to assist with procedures.
About 30 campaigners attended last month's board meeting in Dunedin, appealing to board members to step in and reverse the management decision.
Winton parish priest and anti-abortion campaigner Fr Vaughan Leslie said yesterday he did not believe it was too late to try to overturn the board's decision.
Campaigners believed the board should have consulted the public over its plans and were seeking a ruling from the ombudsman.
The board's governance manual stated it was required to consult the community on planning for the provision of services or significant changes to the provision of services, Fr Leslie said, but doubted whether board members had read the manual.
Staff would not talk to campaigners or supply information about how the Invercargill decision was made, he said.
"We have tried to talk to them but they do not want to talk to us.
"The board is not being open about this at all.
"Not one little bit."
In a statement yesterday, chief medical officer David Tulloch said the board discussed the process undertaken by management and clinicians to initiate termination of pregnancy services at Southland Hospital and was "collectively satisfied" the board had followed the correct process.
"The decision to provide the service is operational, and as terminations are already provided by the DHB, did not require a consultation process."
The service was being provided to ensure that women having terminations had adequate access to the procedure in their own area, he said.
Abortions are done weekly in Dunedin.
During the past year, 780 terminations had been carried out in the board's area, Mr Tulloch said.
The Invercargill service was expected to begin next month, and he said it was expected about 280 terminations would be done annually in Southland.
Abortions in NZ , 2011
15,863 abortions performed, lowest number since 1999.
Abortion rate 17.3 per 1000 women aged 15-44 years, down from 18.1 per 1000 in 2010.
Women aged 20-24 years had highest abortion rate.
Median age of women having abortions: 25.
62% of abortions a woman's first.
55% of abortions performed before 10th week of pregnancy.
Source: Statistics New Zealand
