Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mar del Plata (Agenzia Fides) - There is growing indignation in Argentina following another case of abortion in a hospital in Mar del Plata City. The young woman who suffers from mental deficiency, was reportedly the victim of rape. Against the will of the girl's father, Entre Ríos high court in Paraná sentenced the unborn child to death, the Catholic National Family Secretariat reports. However "because of the advanced state of the pregnancy and the obligation to protect the mother's health, the local doctors in Parana refused to perform the abortion". The young woman was taken to a public hospital in Mar del Plata where her child was aborted. The case caused public indignation because the woman involved has limited mental capacity and was considered among the 'non punishable' cases where abortion mentioned at article 86 of Argentina's penal code. But some say the article is anti-constitutional since it violates the right of life of the unborn child. The Provincial High Court recognises the existence of this right to life but considers it not absolute and can be subject to norms precisely such as those contained in article 86.
In a statement on the case the Bishops' National Family Secretariat affirmed "for every human difficulty there is a human solution. Adoption is the answer to tragedies such as poverty, incapacity or inability to raise a child. When a government kills, it loses all credibility and democracy is dead".
Indignation for a "crime, perpetrated with the cooperation of judges and officials who refused to protect an innocent life" was expressed also by Argentina's Corporation of Catholic Lawyers, always a defender of the sacredness of human life. The Corportation condemned "this repugnant action on the part of the government" warning it that one day it will have to "render account before the sole Lord of life and death, whose judgement arrives for everyone, sooner or later”.
The Bishops' Commission for Justice and Peace expressed "solidarity with the state of human suffering which the young girl who suffered the abortion and her parents must be experiencing". The Commission also underlined the need to "respect human life under any circumstances, to reject violence and the culture of death and find alternative solutions".
In a statement with the title "The Spectre of Herod" Archbishop Héctor Aguer of La Plata, warned: "abortionist totalitarianism like the spectre of Herod poses a sinister threat to Argentina". He said "with masked 'legality' and official means, a child who had lived for several months was denied the right to be born". And he recalled that “this is not a question of religious beliefs, but of certainties confirmed by biology, genetics, embryology and the law”. Precisely "confusion and ideological prejudices prevent the acceptance of a truth of a purely rational order, not of faith". The Archbishop denounces talk of "therapeutic abortion" which is not the case because he asks, "who was cured by the abortion and from what disease? It must be said that whatever the case, this was eugenic and discriminatory". "No mention is made of the child - the Archbishop laments - there was no time to call it by name. As if it never existed. But what is certain is that it was alive and they killed it". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 27/9/2007; righe 40, parole 570)
