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US Pro-Abortion Organizations Begin Major Assault on Peru - Part 1

Using "back door" strategy to bring abortion on demand to Peru via approval of "therapeutic abortions"

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
PERU, July  16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In recent months, a host of US-funded organizations in league with the United Nations Population Fund has begun a concentrated assault on the Peruvian government and medical establishment, in an attempt to legalize abortion under the guise of "women's health".

The organizations represent a veritable blizzard of acronyms, like PROMSEX, INPPARES, DEMUS and CLAM.  What they all have in common is that they are funded and aided by large American foundations with a liberal sexual agenda, particularly the Ford Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or operate under the auspices of the United Nations Population Fund. 

Their immediate goal in Peru is to pressure the executive branch to accept what they call a "protocol for therapeutic abortion."  In recent months these organizations have scored major victories in their campaign, including endorsements by the Peru Medical College, the creation of protocols at two state-run hospitals, and a commission to create a nationwide abortion protocol on the part of Peruvian Health Minister Carlos Vallejos Sologuren.

New Strategy Seeks to Circumvent Legislative Process

In the past, international pro-abortion organizations have sought to introduce abortion on demand in Peru through the legislative process.  However, the Peruvian Congress has repeatedly rejected the idea.  Now the abortion lobby is following a new strategy which seeks to circumvent the legislative process by reinterpreting existing Peruvian law. 

Peru's constitution protects the right to life of all human persons, and Peru's penal code, under a 1924 law, provides criminal penalties for all abortions except those undertaken to save the life of the mother, or to avoid "serious and permanent harm to her health".  The "protocol strategy" is an attempt to redefine "health" to include the "psychological" health of the mother, which would then permit all abortions to be done on the grounds that they are necessary to avoid emotional suffering on the part of the woman.

According to Carlos Polo of the Population Research Institute, this strategy is being used by the abortion lobby throughout Latin America: "One of their favorite tactics has been to claim that any abortion that goes unpunished is a 'legal' abortion.  Since the law in some Latin American countries does not always impose a penalty for abortion, this claim has succeeded in confusing the issue to some degree. 

Using this pretext, they have begun to pressure ministries of health to approve 'protocols of emergency gynecological attention.'  These are written so as to medically authorize the performance of a 'therapeutic abortion' in very limited, restricted circumstances where the mother's health is said to be in grave danger. 

Once such a 'protocol' is in place, the abortion provision is gradually widened in practice.  Soon, using the World Health Organization's definition of 'health,' all abortions become 'therapeutic' abortions.  The constitutional prohibitions on abortion are rendered impotent." 

This opinion is also shared by a former Peruvian health minister, Luis Solari, who says that therapeutic abortion is a euphemism for legalizing abortion for any reason.  "Under this guise they are introducing a giant list of illnesses that have nothing to do with endangering the life of the mother.  With this logic any child with Down's Syndrome will be killed before he is born," Solari warns.

The International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations has also noted the trend.  "The abortion offensives in the City of Mexico, Buenos Aires, Peru, etc., are not mere coincidence.  It seems that at the end of Bush's term (a pro-life president even if he can be criticized on other points), all of the demons have agreed to place abortion as a right in the Continent of Hope and erase any mention of the life that is 'interrupted' and the injured lives of the mothers," said Jose Simón Castivelí, of the organization's executive committee.

Peruvian Health Minister Seen to be Moving Toward Pro-Abortion Position

Recently, after coming under pressure from US-backed organizations, Peruvian Health Minister Carlos Vallejos Sologuren decided to create a "multisectoral" commission to examine the issue, promising to involve all sides in the debate. "Being such a debatable topic, because there are positions for and against it, it is important that they meet and discuss until exhausting the subject and in the end a decision will be made based on a consensus," he told the media, adding that it would be debated in a "very large forum."

However, on June 18th Sologuren agreed to give the opening address to a meeting at the Peruvian congress to "discuss" the protocol, which included pro-abortion organizations such as the Center for Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (PROMSEX), the Peruvian Institute for Responsible Parenthood (INPPARES, the Planned Parenthood branch in Peru), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), to the exclusion of pro-life organizations.

Vallejos has consistently identified himself as "pro-life" in the past, but Polo believes he is moving towards the pro-abortion position.  "Minister Vallejos has said many times he is against abortion, but his actions speak louder than words. Among other things, he claims that the Morning After Pill is not abortifacient, when it clearly is.  He is setting up the Technical Commission, and openly supports its work.  He speaks of being worried about women's lives, but soon enough, we suspect, will declare that some abortions are 'therapeutic.' Soon enough, if the path taken by politicians in other countries is any guide, he will abandon even the pretense of a pro-life stance."  At press time, Vallejos had not responded to our request for an interview.

See Part 2 http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07071701.html

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