Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Sucre (Agenzia Fides) - Some 20,000 people of all ages, whole families, young people and school children took part in a march through the streets of Sucre, Bolivia, demanding that the nation's new Constitution respect for human life and the family and reject proposals to legalise abortion. The event was organised by the local Catholic Church. Participants included Catholics and Evangelical Christians, the prefecture of Chuquisaca and other institutions. The coloured parade went through the streets with balloons and banners in favour of life from conception to natural death, defence of marriage and the family, and demanding from the constituents respect for the values and principles of life. Catholic Archbishop of Sucre, Mgr Jesús Pérez Rodríguez addressed the demonstrators "the multitude of participants have come here of their own free will, in the name of the Lord of Life, to defend life from conception to natural death”.
The demonstrators presented the members of the Rights, Duties and Guarantees Commission of the Constituent Assembly with a manifesto of the Inter-Institutional Committee Pro Life. The manifesto "Defending Life, Marriage and the Family ", affirmed "science cannot prove that life does not begin at the moment of conception and so in most countries abortion is penalised". They propose that the new Constitution should detain the principle that marriage is a union of a man and a woman which corresponds to a natural fact and the principle values in Bolivian culture. The manifesto warns the constituents not to be misled by claims for 'sexual and reproductive rights' put forward by certain movements. The manifesto says legalisation of abortion is not a solution to health or other problems encountered by the mother: the real guarantee for women is a correct and responsible human sexuality and therefore the solution lies not in legislation but in moral behaviour. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/6/2007; righe 25, parole 360)
