European Parliament MPs Head to Brazil, Peru to Promote Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 22, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

European Parliament MPs Head to Brazil, Peru to Promote Abortion Email this article
Printer friendly page

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 22, 2005

Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) — Members of the European Parliament are headed to South America next month on a trip organized by abortion advocates to promote abortion in Brazil and Peru. Pro-life advocates are decrying the attempt by Europe to push abortion on South American countries that have made it illegal.

Catholics for a Free Choice, a so-called Catholic group that backs abortion, has invited a select group of European parliamentarians to participate on the 10 day trip, which runs from December 1 through December 10.

According to Zenit, which received a copy of the invitation given to the lawmakers, the purpose of the trip is to discover "the reality of sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America and the Catholic Church’s influence on these policies."

The Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development joins the pro-abortion group in organizing the trip.

MPs will meet with local abortion advocacy groups which are attempting to overturn laws in the two nations. In fact Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies’ Commission for Social Security and the Family begins hearings today on legislation to legalize abortion.

Riccardo Cascioli, director of the Center of Studies on Population, Environment and Development, told Zenit the trip is part of an "extensive international campaign oriented to pressuring countries in which abortion is prohibited or limited. Latin America is the main object of this attack, as it is the only continent in which abortion continues to be largely prohibited."

Cascioli says this isn’t the first time Europe has tried to export abortion. He pointed to an effort by the Scandinavian branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation to encourage overturning Columbia’s laws against abortion.

"Fundamental in this strategy is the attack against the Catholic Church, accused of exerting an influence which prevents the approval" of pro-abortion laws, he said.