AMERICA/PANAMA - The Church says the law on reproductive health “introduces a cultural and moral system based on criteria which are foreign to our cultural, moral e spiritual life ”

Panama (Agenzia Fides) –Archbishop Dimas Cedeño Delgado of Panama vice-president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Panama, in a message addressed to the National Assembly of the central American nation, reaffirmed the position of the Bishops' Conference with regard to the proposed law on the subject of sexual and reproductive health. In the message, the Archbishop offers to dialogue and discuss the concrete contents of the Bill.
On 22 September, the National Assembly acknowledged a Proposed Bill 442 to adopt measures which establish and protect human rights in matters of sexual and reproductive health and promote education, information and attention about sexual and reproductive health. The Bishops' Conference on several occasions has proposed measures in this regard - the Archbishop said in the message– “stressing especially civil commitment to respond to phenomena such as domestic violence, prostitution, pornography, which seriously damage the family and its weaker members”. At the same time the Bishops' Conference, “anxious to further the development of Panama, during the stage of elaboration of the mentioned norms, has underlined the positive and negative aspects”. In March this year the Bishops expressed satisfaction for suggestions accepted but, at the same time, voiced serious concern about various points in the text presented without the requested changes.
“I am disappointed to see that in many aspects the Bill strikes the basic elements of our society ” the Archbishop said. Among these “it fails to mention of the authority of parents to safeguard, direct, forbid and above all to correct a child in these matters. Parental authority seems to be restricted to accompanying important decisions in the child's life”. Moreover article 6 “recognises the right of every citizen, including minors, to take autonomous, freely made and responsible decisions with regard to sexuality and reproduction”, reducing the role of the parents “to the ‘responsibility’ of accompanying and guiding these decisions”.
The Archbishop also denounces norms that promote “ harmful behaviour for the physical integrity of the person, for example, sterilisation”.
What is more, the message continues “the Bill introduces a cultural and moral system based on criteria foreign to our cultural, moral and spiritual life”. Such as for example “the proposal to eliminate ‘gender inequalities (art. 10), which spreads the ideology of ‘gender’, attacking in this way the solid basis of the ‘family’”.
On the other hand the “Bill makes no mention of the serious phenomena (prostitution, pornography, etc.) which disorient and limit sexual and reproductive health, and has a negative impact for the development of the individual and the family, especially minors ”.
For all these reasons the Church expresses “a seriously negative assessment of the document presented to the National Assembly. She calls for more inclusive dialogue on this fundamental matter at the level of society ”, and urges the President and the members of the National Assembly, to facilitate this dialogue. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 9/10/2008)