By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MEXICO CITY, October 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Mexican “human rights” organization funded by the Canada’s Catholic bishops Development and Peace organizaton is seeking to pressure the state of Guanajuato to conduct abortions, LifeSiteNews has learned. Meanwhile, a CCCB spokeswoman told LifeSiteNews today that there are “on-going” investigations of D&P funded groups by the CCCB beyond the already concluded investigations by the team that went to Mexico this past summer.

The Mexican organization, which calls itself the “All Rights for Everyone Network” (Red “Todos los Derechos Para Todos y Todas” or TDT) reported on July 17 that it had submitted a request to the federal government to denounce the state of Guanajuato, because “the state does not provide legal interruption of pregnancy services” and because “even when the victim of sexual violence who has an abortion is not punished, she continues to be considered as a criminal by the authorities.”

In fact, abortion is not legal in the state of Guanajuato, although abortions under certain circumstances do not carry a penalty. However, TDT follows the international pro-abortion movement’s approach of claiming that the absence of criminal penalties makes the practice “legal.”

For failing to provide abortions, TDT says that the state of Guanajuato “transgresses the human rights of women, provoking an inequality in the state that limits and restrains liberties and the rights of victims of sexual violence.”

The organization states that, along with several other groups, it submitted a formal request to the federal government’s National Women’s Institute to declare a “Gender Violence Alert for Discriminatory Offense” against the state of Guanajuato for such “transgressions,” on May 6 of this year.

Although the petition was rejected in August, the decision has been appealed. In addition, TDT has continued to denounce Guanajuato’s pro-life constitutional amendment, as well as that of other Mexican states.

In a new report recently published on the front page of its website, the organization complains about recent state constitutional amendments passed to protect the right to life from the moment of conception.

The report notes that Mexico’s federal government is seeking to provide abortions to rape victims, and laments the fact that the regulation allowing the deadly procedure (NOM 046) is not being enforced in states that have a right to life amendment.

“The implementation of the Official Mexican Norm 046-SSA2-200519 regulates the provision of medical services to women who are victims of sexual violence and includes the lines that health care institutions must follow to provide interruption of pregnancy services when this [the pregnancy] is the result of a rape. The implementation of the Norm has been impeded now that reforms in the constitutions of 12 federal entities have been produced, [which protect the unborn in their local constitutions,” the report states on page 10 (page 11 of PDF version).

Citing the example of the state of Guanajuato’s pro-life constitutional amendment, the report goes on to complain that, “Already before the constitutional reform women who are victims of rape have been denied even information about the possibility of the legal interruption of pregnancy; some women who have come to public hospitals with sceptic abortions have been charged, investigated, and sanctioned, violating the right to confidentiality. There are even women imprisoned for ‘homocide for reasons of family relationship in offense against her child in gestation'” (page 11, page 12 of PDF version).

TDT received $40,000 from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP or “D&P), which is the Canadian bishops’ international aid organization, during the 2007-2008 budget year.

Although CCODP declared in March that it was temporarily suspending the group’s funding pending a review, along with four others, it then issued a report claiming that the groups were not promoting abortion. CCODP was contacted today and messages left a few times for CCODP Media Contact François Gloutnay who LifeSiteNews was told was in the office, but the calls were not returned.

CCCB communications representative, Francois Garneau told LifeSiteNews today that she was not aware if All Rights for Everyone was still being funded by the bishops Development and Peace organization. Garneau dircted LSN to D&P for the information.

Regarding the CCCB response to the new information about All Rights for Everyone, which was read to her, Garneau offered, “At this point it is an on-going investigation.” She added, “This is not something that was brought to our attention sooner” (LSN learned of it only a few days ago) but, she stated, “It will be discussed and of course Development and Peace will present their report at the bishops’ plenary at which point they will be able to find out more.”

Garneau was asked if her comment about an “on-going investigation” meant that there was more investigation taking place beyond that of the original group with two bishops which submitted its final report some time ago. She reponded, “that is my understanding, yes.”

As LifeSiteNews has reported previously, TDT has publicly endorsed the Mexico City abortion law, which not only permits abortions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy without restriction, but also finances them. It also sports an “agenda” that includes the legalization of abortion in rape cases. One of TDT’s member groups is “Catholics for the Right to Decide” (Católicos por el Derecho a Decidir), an organization falsely claiming to be Catholic that promotes the legalization of abortion throughout Latin America.

Moreover, the leader of Mexico’s National Pro-Life Committee (Comité Nacional Provida), Jorge Serrano Limón, told LifeSiteNews in an interview in March that he knows the group to be pro-abortion.

Although the organization removed its pro-abortion material from its website temporarily in May of this year, all of the material seems to have been restored to the site.

However, despite the public pro-abortion stance of the organization, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Archbishop James Weisgerber, has continued to deny that TDT and other groups funded by the bishops are pro-abortion.

As LifeSiteNews and other news agencies have extensively documented, the CCODP is funding at least dozens of pro-abortion organizations in various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Despite open statements by the groups in interviews, photographs of their facilities, and documents published on their own websites promoting abortion, CCODP and Weisberger continue to deny the evidence.

Contact information for respectful communications to any Canadian bishop

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
2500 Don Reid Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1H 2J2
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (613) 241-9461
Fax: (613) 241-9048

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Hundreds of Thousands in Canadian Lent Collection Money Funding Pro-Abortion Groups in Mexico

Mexican Pro-Life Leader Confirms: Groups Funded by Development and Peace are Pro-Abortion

Group Funded by Development and Peace Supports Mexico City’s Abortion on Demand Law

All of LifeSiteNews’ coverage of the Development and Peace scandal