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A plea for Prayer for Colombia

by Dan Zeidler

Just before the beginning of World War I, when it was clear the madness was about to begin, Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, said, “The lights are going out all over Europe.” - Meaning sanity and hope would be replaced by unbelievable cruelty, destruction and innumerable deaths.

“The lights have gone out.” That phrase has been on my mind a lot lately, but not in relation to World War I.

I pray I am wrong, but it keeps coming to me that that phrase may soon apply to the nation of Colombia, South America.

For three decades, Colombia has been attacked by well-financed, internationally-backed pro-abortion proponents. With the Grace of God, the Colombians have managed to defeat these efforts to change their abortion laws which protect human life and do not allow for any direct abortion. Mother and child are protected in law.

But these three decades of intense anti-life propaganda and influence have taken their toll on this Andean country.  A certain pro-abortion element has developed, and little by little worked its way into key positions in the government, academia and media.  And now, the pro-abortionists believe they have found the way to finally do major damage to the country’s legislation protective of the unborn.

Unable so far to sway Congress or the vast majority of Colombians through legislative means, they have now taken their case to the Colombian Constitutional Court where they feel they have enough support among the judges to declare existing pro-life protections unconstitutional. A Colombian native, Monica Roa, with apparently significant backing from US/international pro-abortion groups, including the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, Human Rights Watch, and others, has filed the complaint. Unfortunately, their pro-abortion position has received much favorable press coverage in Colombia.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church, and pro-life organizations have rallied. An effort to collect signatures in opposition to Monica Roa’s complaint was successful in getting two million Colombians in just two weeks time to petition the Court to reject her position.

Colombian pro-life lawyers, aided by pro-life lawyers throughout the Americas, have very competently challenged the pro-abortion position and exposed it for what it is.

But the latest report from our friends in Colombia is not good. They fear the Court decision (which could come any time between mid-September and December) will go against them. They fear the majority of the judges on the Constitutional Court favored the pro-abortion position from the beginning, and there is no indication they have changed their minds. And the media, they say, is not telling the complete story of who and what is really behind the Monica Roa effort. (See article reporting on Monica Roa’s talk at the New York University School of Law: http://www.law.nyu.edu/newscalendars/2004_2005/RTKseries/roa.html)

We must support our pro-life friends in Colombia. We must care what happens to the unborn and their mothers, whether it’s here in the USA or several thousand miles away. Life is life. God is God. And our neighbor is our neighbor. And a child saved from abortion, a mother saved from participating in the killing of her own child, these are things to fight for, regardless of national borders. 

What happens in Colombia not only affects them, it affects us.  A defeat would weaken the pro-life movement worldwide. It would set an incredibly dangerous precedent for the rest of Latin America, where again, thanks be to God, with the exception of Cuba, has substantial pro-life protections against abortion. 

Pope John Paul II called Latin America the Continent of Hope. We must beg God to save Latin America from the clutches of the abortionists whose “solution” is one of despair, not of hope.

Please, I urge you to join in prayer, to offer personal sacrifices for the women, children, fathers and families of Colombia.

Prayer is powerful. I know of other seemingly hopeless situations where good has won out in the end, thanks to prayer. Please pray for a miracle for Colombia.  Let’s pray that the “lights don’t go out”.

Thank you for caring!

God bless you!

Dan Zeidler Representative in the USA for the Venezuela-based Latin American Alliance for the Family (ALAFA) http://www.alafa.org ()

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