Archbishop questions statistics behind efforts to promote abortion in Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm

In an article published by the AICA news agency, Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata, Argentina, has questioned statistics being used by the country’s Minister of Health, Gines Gonzalez Garcia, who claims that more than 800,000 back-alley abortions are taking place each year in Argentina.

In his article entitled, “Truths, Half-truths and Lies,” Archbishop Aguer wonders, “How is it possible to keep track of two thousand clandestine procedures per day?  If it were based on estimates, it would be good to know how they were calculated.  Perhaps by how many of these illegal actions are reported?”

The archbishop recalled the famous case of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, “who was director of the largest ‘sexual health’ clinic in the world, where he personally carried out some 5000 abortions.  Later, when participating in scientific studies on the fetus inside the womb, he recognized that the fruit of conception is a human being from the very first moment and he became a special witness against the abortion movement.”

Nathanson revealed that in 1968, abortion supporters maintained that “in the United States a million back-alley abortions were taking place, when we knew that in reality they only numbered about 10,000.  But this number was of no use to them and therefore they inflated it in order to gain attention. We also constantly repeated that deaths by back-alley abortions numbered some 10,000, when we knew they were only 200--that’s all--but this number was too small for the propaganda.  This tactic of deceit and lies, if it is repeated enough, ends up being accepted as truth.”

Archbishop Aguer explained that “in presenting this background I’m not pretending to judge intentions, but I do want to remind people that there is an international campaign led by numerous organizations, politicians at all levels and effect communications media.  They constitute a network with abundant resources for shaping world opinion.”

He warned that in order to counteract the suspicious data, the government has implemented an official reproductive health program that, “under the euphemism of ‘sexual education,’ provides biased information and contraceptives and condoms to adolescents and young people, and spreads a double fallacy.”

“First, it does not provide information about the potentially anti-implantation—in other words, abortifacient--effect of hormonal contraceptives (like the drug levonorgestrel and others) and the Intra-Uterine Device (IUD),” the archbishop explained. “The second fallacy is implicit in the carefree distribution of condoms and the promotion of their use, in an attempt to instill the practice of ‘safe sex’.  People should be warned, at least, that it is not so safe.”

The archbishop also pointed to numerous studies that show the ineffectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“The campaign sponsored by the country’s Ministry of Health seems oriented toward fostering a false sense of security that does not favor authentically responsible sexual behavior.  Thus children and adolescents are misguided, with all of the consequences that can easily be foreseen.  Our people, especially our youth and the poor masses, have a right to be told the entire truth,” the archbishop said in conclusion.