Fallout from Europe's other clash of civilisations could generate an exodus of doctors from new European Union member states Poland, Slovakia, and the Baltic States to North America. Last December an EU advisory committee of legal experts issued a report (pdf) saying that medical professionals are not permitted to refuse to participate in abortions because the right to abort a child supersedes freedom of conscience. The report was prompted by a proposed treaty between Slovakia and the Vatican stipulating that Catholic hospitals in Slovakia would not be legally compelled to perform abortions, euthanasia, or other medical procedures that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching.

The controversy over the EU report precipitated the fall of the Slovak government earlier this week.

The statement of the EU legal experts was written in such forcible terms that it embarassed Slovak politicians, eager to be taken seriously by their EU partners after several previous snubs. Earlier the Slovak government had angered the EU by refusing to introduce so-called "positive discrimination legislation", while it was also the only government in Europe to speak out in defence of a Swedish pastor who had been taken to court on charges of "homophobia".

The criticism of the EU experts killed off the draft treaty with the Vatican.

Many doctors and nurses in the heavily Catholic countries of Eastern Europe may leave medical practice rather than be forced to abort unborn children. Others may apply for entry to countries that will not require them to violate their consciences. So, Europe’s loss could be our gain.

Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal says this is another battle in Europe’s two ongoing clashes of civilisations.

Two clashes of civilization are currently taking place in Europe. Freedom-loving people having to fight on two fronts. One involves the radical segment of the immigrant Muslim population that opposes basic Western values such as freedom of speech and that is intent on imposing Islamic taboos (such as the mere fact of depicting their prophet Muhammad) on the non-Islamic population. The other involves radical secularists that want to eradicate all remnants of traditional Christian culture from post-Christian Europe by restricting the right to conscientious objection on the part of religious people.

A subsequent Brussels Journal post elaborates on the "twin threats" to Europe’s culture and liberties: Europeanism and Jihadism.