Mom Gets Church Cash After Avoiding Abortion

A woman has given birth after receiving help from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, which is offering money and other assistance as an alternative to abortion, a church spokesman said Monday.

The Rev. Noel Barry, spokesman for Cardinal Thomas Winning, said the baby was the first child to be born with aid from the project. He gave no details about the mother or her baby.

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported the baby was born prematurely to a 15-year-old student a month ago and that the mother received several hundred dollars plus baby clothes and equipment from the church.

Barry said that was a “pretty elastic interpretation of the situation” and that there was too much emphasis on the financial aspect of the church’s program.

“What the cardinal said was, if you are thinking of having an abortion and if you’ve got problems, come and discuss it with us,” Barry said.