By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
BRAZIL, October 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Brazil's ruling Labor Party has suspended two members, both representatives in the National Congress, for opposing the decriminalization of abortion.
Luiz Bassuma of the state of Bahia, and Henrique Afonso of the state of Acre, are accused of having “ostentatiously” and “militantly” opposed the party's support for permitting the killing of the unborn.
In its announcement of the suspension, the Labor Party acknowledges that “the statutes of the Labor Party guarantee to all the right to make public declarations on doctrinal and political issues” but that the actions of the deputies in defense of life had taken on “a militant and aggressive dimension.”
Bassuma was suspended from the party for a year, and Alfonso for three months. They simultaneously lost their seats on key committees as well as the right to participate in party meetings. Bassuma has resigned and joined Brazil's Green Party.
However, the issue has not died with the suspensions. Bassuma has filed suit against the Labor Party in the nation's Supreme Federal Tribunal, seeking to reverse the penalty against him.
Forty-six Catholic dioceses have issued a joint denunciation of the decision, decrying the fact that “the deputies were punished for taking on the defense of the first human right: the right to life of the defenseless innocent, from conception.”
“The actions of the Labor Party, as well as any other party that behaves the same way, demonstrates intolerance and disrespect for the liberty of conscience guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, causing a setback in the construction of a democratic government, besides violating the fundamental right to life, from conception, guaranteed in the American Convention on Human Rights (San Jose Agreement, Costa Rica), ratified by our National Congress in 1992,” the dioceses state.
Although Brazilian President Luiz Lula claims to be opposed to abortion, he has been promoting its depenalization since at least 2002, and his party officially endorsed the position in 2007. However, pro-life deputies, both inside and outside of the Labor Party, have repeatedly frustrated the efforts of the party to achieve its pro-abortion goals.