Nicaragua: Bishop
Condemns "Therapeutic"
Abortion
Bishop Abelardo Mata,
the president of the
Committee for the Family
of the Nicaraguan
bishops' conference, has
sharply condemned the
proposals of some
politicians in his
country to legalise
so-called "therapeutic
abortion".
Speaking earlier this
month to the
international Catholic
pastoral charity, Aid to
the Church in Need (ACN),
he stated that Nicaragua
had no need of
"therapeutic abortion"
to protect the rights of
its citizens.
The very use of the term
"therapeutic" was an ill
chosen one, he said,
since in reality it was
a matter of a "crime".
The majority of people
in Nicaragua were in
favour of the protection
of unborn life, and
already a petition of
290,000 names had been
gathered, opposing the
proposed amendment. The
Church was decisively
opposed to the "obvious
attempts to confuse
public opinion", he
added.
Carlos Polo, the
director of the Latin
America office of the
Population Research
Institute, told ACN that
this was not the first
time that the term
"therapeutic abortion"
had been used to
undermine the legal
protection of the unborn
child. "We know
precisely which
international
organisations are
exerting pressure in
order to ensure that
unborn children are no
longer protected under
the law", he said.
This was a well-known
strategy. First of all,
exceptions to the law
were secured, and then
finally these
exceptional provisions
were misused, in order
to legalise "every form
of abortion", he
explained. He
congratulated the people
and the rulers of
Nicaragua on having thus
far upheld the national
ban on abortion, for in
this way Nicaragua had
"demonstrated its
dignity and its
independence as a
nation".
So far all abortion is
banned in Nicaragua,
making this the country
with the strictest
abortion laws in Latin
America. On September 13
a government commission
will discuss whether
abortion should be
permitted when the life
of the mother is in
danger or the unborn
child is found to be
handicapped.
The Catholic charity,
Aid to the Church in
Need (ACN) sees the
protection of human life
and of the family as one
of its most important
tasks. The founder of
the organisation, Father
Werenfried van Straaten
again and again insisted
vigorously, right up to
his death in the year
2003, that a stop should
be put to the killing of
unborn life. ACN
continues to support a
number of projects for
the protection of human
life and initiatives for
the support of the
family.
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