MONTEVIDEO, May 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a vote of 17-13, the Uruguayan Senate rejected a bill that would have legalized abortion. With the bill having already passed the lower house, its passage would have resulted in making Uruguay the first country in Latin America to sanction the killing of unborn children by abortion.
The Senate vote was celebrated by pro-life activists who worked and prayed for the bill’s defeat. Last month, analysts predicted the bill was likely to pass the Senate, however, Uruguay President Jorge Batlle said that he would not sign it into law. Dr Juan Claudius Sanahuja of the Global News, a Spanish life and family news group, notes that the measure will not be able to return to Parliament until the 2005.
The leftist coalition that pushed the legislation used grossly inflated statistics from the world health organization claiming Latin America with the highest abortion rate in the world, suggesting that all of them are taking place illegally and thus dangerously. Pro-life leaders note that false claims of countless illegal abortions have been a common strategy of abortion advocates to legalize abortion.