Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – The Mexican Bishops have publicly expressed their lament for the Mexican Supreme Court’s decision to approve the law that decriminalizes abortion. The Bishops affirm that “human life is a gift and a right that must always be valued, nurtured, and protected.” The statement comes as a response to the Mexican Supreme Court’s affirmative ruling on the constitutionality of the law from the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) which on April 24, 2007 passed a reform bill on Article 144 of the Penal Code, decriminalizing abortion up to 12-weeks’ gestation period (upon the desire of the mother, without explanations required). The decriminalization of abortion reached the Court after the political group PGR and the National Human Rights Committee (CNDH) declared it unconstitutional, arguing that it went against the right to life and the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) did not have the power to change the law in this respect. Eight of the eleven ministers of the Supreme Court voted against the bill that tried to prove the unconstitutionality of the law decriminalizing abortion in the country’s capital. This decision now opens the possibility to other Mexican states ruling the same and facilitates the legalization of abortion.
In a press release signed by the President and Secretary of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes and Bishop Jose Leopoldo Gonzalez, and written on behalf of all the country’s Bishops, the Prelates made an urgent plea to the people, asking that Mexico may seriously consider the grave importance of defending life. “This awareness must obviously begin with respecting and defending life from conception until natural death. In light of this reflection, we are making a plea to society at large, asking that it fight to protect all human embryos, because the inalienable right to life for every person from the moment of conception, should be a fundamental part of civil society and its legislation,” the statement from the Mexican Bishops said.
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City and Primate of Mexico, issued a statement as well following the Court’s ruling, affirming that “this decision may declare a criminal action legal, but it will never make an intrinsically evil action, as is killing innocent human beings in their mothers’ wombs, morally just. No court can contradict the supreme law of God that tells us: ‘You shall not kill!’.”
He also reminded all the faithful that the future of the nation depends on each one of them. “In the face of a generalized fear of street violence and the destruction left behind by drugs, now we have institutional violence, insured by our justice system, which will now give way to the loss of millions of lives of innocent children and which will consequently lead to the physical, moral, and spiritual wounds of mothers who live through this horrible event.” Furthermore, all of this will inevitably lead to a greater moral indifference and relativism.
Cardinal Rivera also asks that all priests and religious “attend with generosity, strength of will, and wholeheartedness, anyone that may be contemplating taking the life of an unborn child.” Addressing doctors and nurses, he asks them to “protect the lives of unborn children at all costs, and be faithful to their vocation and their Christian conscience,” exercising their right to conscientious objection. He also asked the lay faithful “to actively participate in the task of saving the unborn, working for legislation that helps women and promotes worthy forms of employment that allow for a healthy family life.”
After the Supreme Court’s decision was made known, the bells of the Cathedral and the main parishes of Mexico City tolled their bells for half an hour as a “sign of suffering and mourning.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 2/9/2008)
