Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 30, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The AICA news agency in Argentina reported this weekend that the Catholic University of La Plata has offered to help take care of the unborn child of a handicapped woman whose parents are seeking court approval for an abortion.
In a letter to the Supreme Court of the Buenos Aires province, the university’s rector, Ricardo De la Torre, offered, "to help the young woman in all her needs and to assume responsibility for the child after his birth if the family of the young woman should decide they don’t want him or cannot raise him."
"I also offer her counseling from our Department of Legal Medicine free of charge, as well as free medical care from health professionals at the University which I represent," he added.
"It is also the will of our Institution," the letter continues, "to provide the necessary means for collaborating as well in the adoption of the baby by another family if that be the decision of the young woman’s parents."
The 19 year-old woman became pregnant through rape, and her parents have asked the court to allow her to obtain an abortion. Anti-life feminists and local officials are pressuring the court to grant the family’s request.
In recent days the Corporation of Catholic Lawyers in Argentina issued a public statement expressing "alarm" over the comments made by the country’s Health Minister and by the governor of the Buenos Aires province in support of abortion. The group said it hoped "the justices would know to protect the rights of the child, especially the right to be born and to live, which constitutes the origin and foundation of all other rights."