By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
SAN SALVADOR, April 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – All 84 members of the Congress of El Salvador have signed a petition condemning abortion as an “abominable crime.”
The condemnation is included in a statement made by the “Yes to Life”, a petition that is moving from country to country in Central America with the purpose of affirming the region’s rejection of abortion, euthanasia, and other offences against human life.
“Every human being should be protected and respected from the moment of conception…until his natural death. Our primary responsibility as legislators is to unconditionally defend life. We condemn abortion as an abominable crime,” says the petition.
“Yes to Life” has also received 108 signatures from the 118 national legislators in Honduras, where it originated. It will now move to Guatemala.
According to the newspaper El Salvador, all of the representatives from the socialist and traditionally pro-abortion Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) signed the statement.
“With our signatures what we are reaffirming is our commitment to respect the Constitution,” said representative Salvador Sánchez Cerén after signing. “We also know that there is a Biblical passage that speaks of the right to life and those of us who are Catholic or Evangelical have to respect life.”
However, when questioned about the party’s past support for abortion, Sánchez Cerén left the door open, stating, “What we want is a debate in Salvadoran society about the necessity of therapeutic abortion. On this topic, we are open to listen.”
According to María Lillian Navarrete de Pereza, an assistant attorney general in El Salvador, Central America is under pressure to legalize abortion, reports the organization Fundacion Vida. However, she says, this would “open the door to cultural chaos and libertinism” and this would “enormously affect the incipient democracy that we have managed to create with such effort”.