Montevideo, Uruguay (LifeNews.com) -- Leaders of the Catholic Church in the South American nation of Uruguay met on Thursday to discuss whether or not to excommunicate politicians who voted for a recent bill that would legalize abortion. Uruguay President Tabaré Vázquez vetoed the bill earlier this year and it would have allowed first-trimester abortion on virtually any grounds.

Vázquez defied the votes of his party in the Uruguay Congress to expand the nation's abortion law, which currently only allows abortions only in cases of protecting the mother's life, rape or extreme poverty.

The Senate initially tied on a 15-15 vote in approving the bill but eventually approved it on an 18-13 vote. The Chamber of Deputies approved it on a 49-48 margin.

With many members of the Senate majority having membership in the Catholic Church, officials are concerned that they are violating the church's pro-life teachings.

The Latin American news agency Prensa Latina says members of the Uruguayan Episcopal Conference debated a measure for excommunication.

The met in the town of Florida, north of the nation's capital, and began their discussion of the warning the Montevideo Archbishop gave to the members of the Chamber of Deputies to not deviate from Catholic pro-life teachings.

They are deciding whether or not the warning is sufficient for now, but a majority of the members of the Catholic conference appear to favor excommunication but only after every member of Congress has had a chance to respond to the warning.
Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic Outreach Director for the National Right to Life Committee, previously discussed the situation of promoting abortion in South America with LifeNews.com.

"The purveyors of abortion in Latin America are single minded in their determination to legalize the destruction of human life in the region," he said. "They are well funded and financially motivated to pressure the legislatures of as many countries as possible to reject their pro-life laws."

"But the hard working pro-lifers in those countries know that there is no equity for the unborn child who is destroyed, they know that the women who die from legal abortions did not have their best interests represented by the pro-abortionists," Rojas added.

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