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Mexican Church to Create "Sanctuary for the Victims of Abortion" in Response to Court Ruling

Over 1,500 married couples in Mexico have expressed their desire to adopt children in danger of abortion

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MEXICO CITY, September 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic Church authorities in Mexico City will consecrate a Sanctuary of the Victims of Abortion today, which is to be located in a cemetery, following a Supreme Court ruling declaring the city's abortion law constitutional.

The sanctuary, which will include a chapel and a burial site for the remains of aborted fetuses, is "the option that we are offering to give hope and a way out for those people who, having committed an act without considering the consequences, realize their error, and therefore can return to the communion of the Church," the rector of the city's Old Basilica de Guadalupe, Agustín Rivera, told the Spanish news agency EFE.

Those who participate in abortions are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church, although they can be reconciled through confession and penance.

"More than seeing it as a punishment, we must see it as a method of instruction, that is it has to do with serious harm that we have done to ourselves," said Rivera.

The city is the first place in Latin America after Cuba to legalize the procedure on demand.  The measure, passed in 2007, depenalizes abortion during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

The law was declared constitutional by the nation's Supreme Court in an 8-3 vote after months of hearings, despite a preliminary conclusion by one of the justices that the measure was unconstitutional.  Catholic Church officials have denounced the verdict and have sought to alert the public about the issue through unprecedented national appeals.

Rivera noted that the availability of burial for the victims of abortion will raise consciousness about the industries that profit from fetal remains, using them in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

Over 1,500 married couples in Mexico have expressed their desire to adopt children in danger of abortion, a number that surged after the ruling, reports ACI Prensa.

Previous LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Protests and Official Mourning Declared following Mexican Pro-Abortion Ruling
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082810.html

Majority on Mexican Supreme Court Endorse Constitutionality of Abortion Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082714.html

Mexico City Pilgrimage to Protest Abortion Law to be Held this Sunday
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062011.html

Mexico City Official Admits that Decriminalization has Increased the Number of Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042405.html

1 Year of Legal Abortion in Mexico: 6400 Legal Abortions, 22 Injuries, 8 Dead Mothers
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040707.html

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