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Monday May 15, 2006
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Colombian Court Legalizes Abortion – Beachhead for Activists in Latin America
Culmination of years of effort by international population control groups
by Hilary White
BOGOTA, May 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Colombia’s Constitutional Court has issued a ruling making abortion legal in that country for the first time. The decision, issued May 10, makes the overwhelmingly Catholic country the first in Latin America to legalize abortion.
In a 5-to-3 decision, the Court overturned Colombia's previous complete ban on abortion and ruled that the “hard cases” of conception due to rape or incest justified legalization. The court called the complete abortion ban "disproportionate" and "irrational."
The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Colombia, Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro has responded to the decision saying, “A door is being opened toward the elimination of the innocent lives of so many children who will not be allowed to live, we have always said this is wrong. We continue to say that this is an act against the life of the unborn and it is immoral.”
Bogotá’s Archbishop, Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz went even further, telling El Tiempo newspaper, “All those who commit the crime, the sin of abortion, will be excommunicated immediately. This applies as well to those who foster or assist abortion.”
Archbishop Castro said the court’s acceptance of the “hard cases” of rape and incest is a ruse. “The child is innocent…the criminal should be punished and put in jail for a longtime, but the child should not have to pay for the sins of another. He is an innocent baby.”
The Catholic Church has been leading the fight against abortion and knows that Colombia is being used as a wedge to bring abortion on a massive scale to Latin America in general.
Cardinal Rubiano wrote in a letter in March: “The future, not only of Colombia, but of all of Latin America is at stake. The loss of one country (in terms of legal protection for the unborn) will substantially weaken the pro-life fabric of all of Latin America. What begins as a small hole will end as a huge tear allowing much evil to come in. We would no longer be a solid bloc protecting and loving all of life.”
The Constitutional Court’s decision was the culmination of years of effort by international population control groups to open the door to abortion in Latin America.
The suit was brought by abortion activist Monica Roa of the UN funded Women’s Link Worldwide (WLW), based in Madrid who admitted in a speech in New York last year that a campaign of deception to create sympathy for the “hard cases” such as rape for abortion was a major part of her group’s strategy to create unrestricted abortion on demand. Roa further admitted that since democratic means were invariably unsuccessful, abortion needed to be imposed through the courts.
In June, 2005, LifeSiteNews.com reported that Roa’s group was suing Colombia to permit abortion in so-called ‘extreme cases’. In December, the suit was rejected as flawed, since the complaint filed lacked sufficient arguments to allow for a ruling.
Abortion activists from other Latin American countries confirmed the bishops’ fears, telling the New York Times that the Colombian court decision would open the door for similar actions elsewhere. “This decision influences and makes one think that other countries will advance on this issue,” Susana Chávez, director of the Center for the Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Peru.
Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Cardinal Pleads for Worldwide Prayers to Protect Colombia from Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032006.html
Hundreds of Thousands March against Abortion in Bogota Colombia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06040409.html
Colombian Radical Feminist Reveals Dis-Information Strategy to Legalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05090101.html
UN Group Sues Colombia to Decriminalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/05062704.html
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