Spanish archbishop calls for civil disobedience of new abortion law

Madrid, Spain, Jul 13, 2010 / 11:11 am

Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellin of Burgos warned this week there is no right to kill an innocent human being and therefore no obligation to obey to the new law on abortion. Rather, “direct opposition without distinction” must be mounted, he said.
 
“Let’s be clear: this law is not a law, although it is presented as such by some politicians and lawmakers.  It is no law because nobody has the right to take the life of an innocent human being. For this reason it is not obligatory.  Moreover, it demands direct opposition without distinction,” the archbishop said in a letter.
 
He underscored that reason cannot recognize abortion as a right because it constitutes the killing “of a person who is not guilty.”  “The right of a person to exist who has already been conceived, although not yet born, is not a belief stemming from any religion.  One does not need to be a believer to hold that an innocent person has the right to be defended and respected in his or her integrity.  Common sense dictates that one cannot take a human life in order to solve another problem or to “get money or votes,” he said.
 
The archbishop went on to say it is a “fallacy to assert that this law was passed by a majority in Parliament and that it represents the will of the majority of citizens, or if the Constitutional Court upholds it, that opposing it would be disobedient and would warrant sanction.”
 
“The fallacy consists in giving politicians, judges or citizens a right they do not have.  And nobody has the right to legislate the killing of an innocent person,” Archbishop Gil Hellin said.  He urged Spaniards to help all mothers who are in difficult situations and to support motherhood “with all the means at our disposal” in order to “halt this plague of abortion that, in Spain alone has already destroyed more people than all those who live in the cities of Zaragoza, Cordoba and Burgos.”