Peruvian Bishops’ Committee on the Family issues powerful call for defense of life

Lima, Peru, Mar 1, 2007 / 11:40 am

The Committee on the Family and the Defense of Life of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference issued a message this week urging the defense of the unborn child regardless of how he or she was conceived and calling arguments for the legalization of abortion lies.

In order to mark the Day of the Unborn Child, which is celebrated in Peru on March 25, the committee issued a statement reiterating the call of the Church for all Peruvians to welcome “the great and mysterious gift of life that shines in each human being, especially in the one awaiting to be born.”

The human being “begins to exist, as such, at the moment of conception - at that time as only a single cell,” the message states.  The circumstances of conception can vary, “and can even be dramatic,” it continues.  “The new being may be wanted or unwanted, perhaps not expected; he could be in the mother’s womb or in a laboratory slide, perhaps in a freezer; he could have been conceived out of love or out of violence, in the warmth of a home or in the coldness of an irresponsible lack of conscience.  But none of these circumstances changes the scientific truth, which remains safe and sound and never changes: we are dealing with a human being just as valuable as one already born,” the committee stressed in its message.

The committee also warned against the increasing threat of legalized abortion in Latin America, often under the banner of “therapeutic abortion,” which is even proposed “as a ‘solution’ to the drama of woman carrying a malformed baby or a baby that was conceived through rape.  Regardless of the mask they wish to use to cover it up, ‘therapeutic’ abortion will continue to be the murder of one human being at the hands of another.”

“Let’s speak the truth.  Death cannot bring peace to a society, much less to the heart of a mother.  The legalization of abortion is a fraud, it does not solve anything.  Let us work together for authentic and realistic solutions to social problems and to the human drama of facing a difficult pregnancy,” the committee’s message urged.  “Justice and national reconciliation will be achieved not at the cost of the lives of innocent and defenseless Peruvians, but rather with a generous ‘yes’ to authentic love and to the truth about man and the will of God for him,” the message stated in conclusion.