Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lisbon (Agenzia Fides) - The standing committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Portugal has called on the country’s Catholics to vote against lifting restrictions on abortion in the upcoming referendum. On 19 October Portugal’s parliament approved a proposed referendum to extend cases for abortion and de-penalise it in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The present law in force since 1984 punishes illegal abortion with three years imprisonment for the mother, from two to eight years for the doctor, but it allows abortion in the first 12 weeks in the case of violence or if the mother’s life is in danger. The Premier, José Sócrates, said the approval of this new Bill is fundamental to stop underground abortion and make it legal for women to abort up to the 10th week of pregnancy.
The Bishops recall that "for Catholics induced abortion is a grave sin against the 5th Commandment do not kill, even when the law allows it". They say abortion "is not only a moral religious question because it violates the universal value of respect for life".
"Legalisation is not the right path to solve the drama of secret abortion" the bishops say because it causes trauma in the heart of the mother. Moreover "abortion is not a mother’s right because no one can decide whether a person may live or die”. The statement ends with a call to Catholics and all men and women of the same opinion to strive to illuminate the consciences of people and continue to work to protect life .
The Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo, issued a text pin-pointing the declarations in the statement, explaining that rather then urging people to abstain from the vote, it encourages them to vote to defend life. The Cardinal recalls "condemnation of abortion is a question of basic ethics, not religion. The right to life is a universal value it is demanded of natural law". "If the condemnation of abortion - the Cardinal said - were only demanded by religious morals, the defenders of abortion could argue, and they do, that the laws of a secular state need not protect religious laws; they need only respect freedom of conscience … If we demand a state law which defends human life from its conception it is because this is a universal value of natural ethics, not only a moral religious precept ".
The Patriarch recalls "the question of the dignity of human life from the outset is today so clear even from the scientific point of view and one of the goals to reach in the period of debate is clearly at least, to raise doubts in many who, without in-depth reflection, would be ready to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum on the proposed law. I think especially of young voters". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 25/10/2006; righe 39, parole 539)
