By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
SANTIAGO, March 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Latin American Post-Abortion Attention Network (APAL), based in Santiago, Chile, has written a letter to US President Barack Obama, asking him not to fund pro-abortion organizations in Latin America
“Mr. President Barack Obama, our Latin American countries believe in the self-determination of peoples, a basic principle of international law, and we believe in absolute respect for life, as the foundation of all human rights,” writes APAL President Elizabeth Bunster. “For that reason, we appeal to (your) good sense not to interfere through the delivery of resources to groups identified with feminism that promote abortion in a radical way as a form of birth control.”
The letter comes in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to eliminate the Mexico City Policy formulated in the early 1980s, which prohibits federal funding for overseas groups that provide or promote abortions.
Bunster points out that Chile, where APAL is based, has the lowest rate of maternal mortality in Latin America, and adds the Constitution of Chile “maintains that the right to life is the essence of human rights, because without life there are no rights.”
Chile’s low maternal mortality rate, coupled with its prohibition of surgical abortion except to save the life of the mother, contradicts the claim of international abortionist groups that prohibiting abortion necessarily elevates the rate of maternal mortality through “unsafe” and unregulated abortions.
“For this reason, we call (on Barack Obama) not to lead our Latin American countries to abortionist practices, sheltered by so-called reproductive rights and in a definitely incoherent way, call a ‘right’ a false solution that does so much damage and is related to the same women who come to receive post-abortion care,” writes Bunster.
Pro-abortion groups in Latin America already receive hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from pro-abortion foundations in the United States and Europe.
Abortion is illegal in almost all cases throughout Latin America, except for in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City.
Previous LifeSiteNewscom coverage:
Pro-Life Leaders Condemn Obama’s Funding of International Abortion Groups
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012310.html
Most Americans Disapprove Obama Funding Abortion Overseas: Gallup Poll
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020306.html
Dominican Republic Cardinal: Revoking Mexico City a “Disgrace” to the U.S.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012912.html