Lima, Peru, Sep 14, 2009 / 12:22 pm
Last Friday Bishop Jesus Moline Labarta presented 33,000 signatures from voters against abortion to the Peruvian Congress in an effort to promote the defense of life from conception to natural death as the Constitutional Tribunal debates the legality of the morning-after pill.
“The vast majority supports the defense of life. We support the protection of life from the first moment of existence, the moment of conception to natural death,” the bishop said.
Those who have signed the petition have done so “convinced that it is necessary to heed the voices of those who cannot cry out, of those who cannot be heard, of the unborn, those who are in the wombs of their mothers,” he continued.
Bishop Labarta said members of the Chiclayo professional soccer team have pledged to wear shirts that say “No to abortion” as part of the petition.
Speaking to the Catholic News Agency, the bishop said the petition is intended to “make our leaders feel they are supported by the voters and to encourage these kinds of initiatives to be carried out across the country in order to show that the majority in our society supports life in all stages, from conception to natural death, and to express rejection for the pretense by some minority groups to get abortion legalized.”
Bishop Labarta exhorted Peruvians to express their support publicly for the family and to participate in public and private initiatives in defense of human life and the family.
He also urged Peruvians to join in the March for Life which will take place in Chiclayo on November 7. The march is is expected to draw some 10,000 people.