Political authorities cannot restrict or eliminate human rights, Mexican bishop warns

Mexico City, Mexico, Jun 2, 2008 / 12:31 pm

Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez of Tehuacan in Mexico said last week that political authorities of any level “lack the faculties to restrict or eliminate human rights, which derive from the inherent dignity of the human person.”

In an article published on May 29, the Mexican bishop said, “Human rights, among them the right to life,” are irrevocable and come before the State, “which has the sole duty of recognizing them and protecting them in its national and international legislation, but it does not grant them.”

“Neither do they depend on recognition from society, nor therefore, are they are not subject to consensus,” he continued.  “People make laws, laws do not make people,” he said in reference to the public arguments being held at the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the law on abortion in Mexico City.

While he acknowledged that women undergo abortion for different reasons, Bishop Aguilar stressed, “This is not about pitting the rights of the woman against those of the unborn.  Both are of value.”

“Let us work that both may live and give protection to women in crisis pregnancies. Abortion causes more dangers than continuing with the pregnancy,” he said.

“If the mother doesn’t see a way to assume responsibility for the baby to be born, let her give him in adoption.  We need to facilitate the adoption process and provide legal and social guarantees to reconcile work and family.  We need to promote the establishing of day care centers and protect single moms and children who grow up on the street,” the bishop said.

He denounced the Mexico City law allowing for abortion up to 85 days after conception when from the conception “the zygote is a new organism” that has its own unique DNA, different from the mother’s and the father’s. “It is absurd and unjust that the law protects life at 85 days and leaves unborn life at 84 days without protection, as if there were a qualitative difference between one and the other,” he said.