By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK
Dozens more women are seeking help from a Catholic anti-abortion centre since the Church offered them financial help.
In April, the Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Patrick Dunn, publicly pledged to give every possible help, including financial aid, to women undecided about the future of their unborn children.
Since then he has not had to carry out his commitment to personally support any woman deciding to have her baby throughout the child's life - he believes few women would want that level of help anyway.
But he has been delighted by a 100 per cent increase in the number of women contacting the Catholic-oriented Family Life Pregnancy Centre, increasing from around three appointments to six a day.
"I knew if there was a critical need people would respond. We've seen a good increase due to the greater publicity - I think word's really getting around."
The initiative followed a similar cash pledge in Britain by the Archbishop of Glasgow, Cardinal Thomas Winning, who claimed that more than 100 women had been encouraged not to have abortions.
Family planning groups criticised Bishop Dunn's offer because they felt that women would be pressured into not having abortions.
The bishop could not say whether any women had decided against abortion directly because of the Church's pledge.
He said "thousands" of dollars in donations since the publicity had allowed the centre to rent a four-bedroom house in Balmoral during the past two months for pregnant women needing accommodation. Women, usually in their early 20s, could stay there rent-free if neccessary. Food was also provided.
Bishop Dunn said migrants without residency often needed the most financial help and about 10 women had stayed in the house so far.
"We're there for the long term if that's what they want, but mostly we're there to help on a short-term basis. The women don't want to be in a dependent situation, they want to get on with their own lives."
Between June and July, 235 women contacted the centre, up 100 per cent on the same period last year. Of 29 pregnancies, one woman chose abortion and 11 were undecided.
Bishop Dunn said that if women could not cope long term he recommended adoption "to free themselves up and give the child a chance."
A counsellor at the centre, Angela Corbett, believed the pledge had contributed to many women "choosing life" over abortion.
She said the centre did not promote abortion as an option but always respected a woman's final decision.
It also advised women on the help available from Government agencies and was able to offer accommodation and financial help.
"We wouldn't expect women to need help, financial or otherwise, from us for more than six months after the baby's born.
"It's not healthy, and they need to be independent."
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