Chile: bishops lament abortion proposal
CWN - December 30, 2010
The bishops of Chile issued a statement on the Feast of the Holy Innocents lamenting a proposal that would legalize abortion in the cases of rape, birth defects, or a threat to the life of the mother. Since 1989, abortion in Chile has been illegal in all circumstances.
“We believe that the level of development of a community is measured by its ability to take care of the weak and the sick,” the bishops said in their statement. “A society that allows them to be eliminated gives way to violence as a way to resolve conflict, becoming a dictatorship where the strongest also make decisions for the weak. Nobody has the right to claim the power to decide which life deserves to see the light of day and which does not.”
In their statement, the bishops quoted Venerable John Paul II (“I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral”) and Venerable Pius XII, who said:
It is erroneous to put the question with this alternative: either the life of the child or that of the mother. No, neither the life of the mother nor that of the child can be subjected to an act of direct suppression. In the one case as in the other, there can be but one obligation: to make every effort to save the lives of both, of the mother and of the child.
74% of the nation’s 16.8 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. 15% are evangelical Protestants.
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