Argentinian lawmakers sign pledge in defense of life and family

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sep 28, 2011 / 17:25 pm

Federal, provincial and local government leaders from across Argentina have signed a pledge to uphold the dignity of human life at all stages and to oppose any law that would legalize abortion or euthanasia.

The nation's lawmakers signed the “Protocol for Life and the Family” at a conference of the Parliamentarians for Life and the Family on September 25 in the city of Salta.  

During the ceremony, Archbishop Alfredo Horacio Zecca of Tucuman said that among “the threatening challenges, we must not fail to mention the crime of abortion, which some want to legitimize as if it were a right.”

The legalization of abortion would inject into society a mindset that justifies the “radical exclusion of others, the elimination of the unwanted unborn and disregard for the inalienable dignity of life,” he said.

“No doubt in some circumstances, the mother and the child experience serious difficulties. But the elimination of the one who is weakest is not the way to solve the problems,” he added. “Rather, a commitment to saving both lives through a concerted and broad political and social effort” is needed, the archbishop stated.

Archbishop Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, as well as pro-secretary Msgr. Carlos Simon Vazquez, also attended the conference which was held at the Historic House of Independence, the site of the signing of Argentina’s Declaration of Independence 196 years ago.

Senator Negre de Alonso said the location was chosen precisely because of its historic significance. “Here we commit ourselves to continue defending the Constitution and rejecting any law that attacks life, such as the legalization of abortion and euthanasia,” she noted.

Senator–elect Silvia Elias de Perez said, “We are not only against abortion but also euthanasia. We are against any kind of unlimited technical means to assist in conception and against all proposed laws being debated in the country that go against the first right that should be preserved, the right to life.”