The Catholic bishops of Argentina issued a strong message Monday condemning their political leaders’ “feverish obsession” with legalizing abortion instead of working to alleviate the real suffering in their country.
Argentina President Alberto Fernández introduced a bill to legalize abortions for any reason up to 14 weeks earlier this year. On Dec. 11, the country’s lower house passed the bill. It now awaits action in the Senate where pro-lifers hope lawmakers will reject it as they did a similar bill in 2018.
In a statement Monday, the Catholic bishops said legalizing the killing of unborn babies in abortions will not help the many people who are suffering, Crux reports.
“In recent weeks, the panorama has darkened: The political option has become an incomprehensible urgency, a feverish obsession to establish abortion in Argentina, as if it had something to do with the sufferings, fears and concerns of the most of the Argentines,” the bishops said in the statement.
They urged Fernández and other pro-abortion leaders to stop pushing to legalize abortions and instead “defend the human rights of the weak in such a way that we do not deny them even if they were not born.”
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“There are thousands of health and social issues to be solved, which require our full attention: from the problems of vaccination to the number of very sick people who this year have not received adequate medical care, to women who suffer violence or do not have a decent work. But what is being offered to them at this harsh and uncertain moment is abortion, and that is a blow to hope,” the bishops continued.
According to the report, unemployment and poverty are huge problems in Argentina, with more than half of its people living below the poverty line. The bishops emphasized that killing unborn babies in abortions is not a solution to these problems.
Support for unborn babies remains strong in the South American country. Pro-life leaders have been organizing protests, prayer vigils and other efforts to ensure their country continues to protect unborn babies. The pro-life coalition Unidad Provida recently urged lawmakers to reject the pro-abortion bill and enact policies that support “the care of the two lives that are at stake in a vulnerable pregnancy” instead.
Pope Francis, previously the archbishop of Buenos Aires, also has been writing letters of encouragement to pro-lifers throughout the country. In November, he wrote an open letter to pro-life women leaders who have been fighting for years to preserve protections for unborn babies in their homeland.
“Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it fair to hire a hitman to solve a problem?” the pope wrote, adding that the pro-life women “know what life is.”
The pro-abortion legislation would allow unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to 14 weeks of pregnancy and later in cases of rape or dangers to the mother’s life or health. It also would allow girls as young as 14 to get abortions without a parent’s knowledge or consent.
Fernández and other abortion supporters have argued that legalizing abortion is a matter of “public health.” Abortion activists claim approximately 40,000 women are injured or killed in unsafe abortions in Argentina – something Fernández brought up when he introduced the bill.
But the claim is dubious. Pro-abortion groups often overestimate the number of illegal and unsafe abortions that occur in countries across the world, and some have admitted to lying about the numbers.
Growing evidence indicates that access to basic health care, not abortion, is what really helps improve women’s lives.
Most countries in Central and South America protect unborn babies from abortion. In Argentina, abortions are allowed only in cases of rape or threats to the mother’s life.
Abortion advocacy groups, backed by some of the richest men in the world, have been putting intense pressure on Argentina to legalize abortion on demand, hoping the action will prompt neighboring countries to do the same.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Argentina Senate to oppose the bill.
