An attempt to persuade Europe’s leading human rights organisation to fight to abolish the rights of doctors and nurses to conscientiously object to involvement in abortions yesterday ended in a humiliating defeat.

Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe not only roundly rejected a resolution to strip medical professionals of their rights to opt out of abortions but they also comprehensively rewrote the proposals so that they amounted to a defence of conscientious objection.