News

Friday May 28, 2010


Vast Majority of Latin Americans Support Criminal Penalties for Abortion

By Mathew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MEXICO CITY, May 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The vast majority of Latin Americans are in favor of maintaining criminal penalties for abortion, according to a new study.

The study, which polled residents of several Latin American countries, indicates that 60.4 percent of Mexicans favor criminal penalties for illegal abortions.

Mexico, however, is on the low end of the scale. In Brazil, 67.3 percent favor such penalties, and in Chile, 71.7 percent. In Nicaragua, where abortion is completely illegal, the majority reaches 82.2 percent.

In Mexico, women were even more likely to support the criminalization of abortion than men. Of those who support criminal penalties for killing the unborn, 32 percent are women, and 28.4 percent are men, according to the study.

The poll also reflects the fact that the pro-abortion drumbeat insisting that “women have the right to decide” to kill their unborn child has been heard by the people of Mexico — and rejected.

While 57 percent said they had heard the slogan, 56 percent were in agreement with the statement that “the life of the fetus is above all things.”

Claudia Dides Castillo, director of the Gender and Equity Program for the pro-abortion Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLASCO), which conducted the study, admitted to the press that Latin Americans are “conservative” on the issue of abortion. She added that the study’s result reflects the fact that the prevailing image in Latin America is “the woman as the giver of life.”

The survey was reportedly conducted through face-to-face interviews with an average of 1,200 respondents in each country. It has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.