SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Some Roman Catholic state lawmakers vowed this week to lift a ban on therapeutic cloning despite a warning from a senior church leader that they would face “consequences” in their religious lives.The Catholic archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, gave the warning to lawmakers Tuesday ahead of a debate in the New South Wales state Parliament on Wednesday over a bill that would lift a ban on the splicing of DNA from skin cells into human eggs to produce stem cells for medical research.

State Premier Morris Iemma and his deputy John Watkins are the highest profile practising Catholics who have announced their support for the bill.

Pell said he might refuse to give Iemma, who lives in the state capital Sydney, the sacrament of Holy Communion during mass if the premier supports the bill.

“It is a serious moral matter and Catholic politicians who vote for this legislation must realise that their voting has consequences for their place in the life of the church,” Pell told reporters on Tuesday.

Pell said he was not threatening to excommunicate lawmakers — the most serious possible sanction in which a Catholic is cut off from the church.

A Sydney lawmaker from the ruling Labour Party, Tony Stewart, a Catholic, said on Wednesday he was prepared to go to hell rather than oppose the legislation.

“Maybe I’ll go to hell, but if I go to hell, I’m going to do so by saving a lot of lives, because that’s what this bill is about,” Stewart said.