Pro-life advocates in Latin America have been rallying strong against international pressure to legalize abortion on demand.
On Sunday in the Dominican Republic, pro-lifers flooded the streets of the capital to protest a bill that would legalize the killing of unborn babies in their country, the Catholic News Agency reports.
Unborn babies currently are protected under the law in the Caribbean country. But if the legislation passes, it would allow unborn babies to be aborted in cases of rape, incest and fetal deformity, the report states.
Pro-lifers gathered with Catholic Archbishop Francisco Ozoria Acosta of Santiago for the “Let’s Save Both Lives” march. A large number of Catholics and Protestants attended, calling on the government to keep protections for the unborn in place.
The Archdiocese of Santo Domingo warned people about the slippery slope of legalizing abortion, even in limited cases.
“Our obligation is to warn what will happen if abortion on three grounds is approved,” it said in a statement. In other countries where abortion is legal, “the culture of death groups demand that unrestricted abortion be approved, maternal mortality does not go down, neither do teen pregnancies.”
The Dominican Republic has been debating whether to legalize abortion for many years. In 2009, despite pressure from United Nations agencies and abortion advocates, the country’s lawmakers instead approved a pro-life constitutional change. The amendment states that “the right to life is inviolable from conception until death.” It passed with 128 in favor and 32 opposed.
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Central and South American countries are very pro-life, though they have witnessed a growing push from abortion advocates to legalize abortion. Along with the Dominican Republic, Chile, El Salvador, Suriname, Honduras and Nicaragua protect unborn babies by banning abortion, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The countries’ pro-life citizens have been pushing back strongly against the pressure to legalize abortion. In July, Argentina also saw a huge pro-life rally calling for protections for unborn babies.
A 2015 Pew Research Survey found that an overwhelming majority of Latin Americans believe abortion should be illegal, including 91 percent of those polled in the Dominican Republic, LifeNews reported previously.
