Abortion proponents in Chile continue to work for the legalization of abortion, but face stiff resistance.
Image above: a view of Santiago, the capital city of Chile.
Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opposed the proposal to legalize abortion in Chile calling it “a trap for the gullible.”
The cardinal was in Chile from November 6-10, having been invited by the Pontifical Catholic University to participate in two official conferences on the challenges of the family and the role of Catholic universities.
In a statement published in the daily newspaper El Mercurio he declared:
…the life of the individual is sacred. Human beings are not the property of the State and the State doesn’t have absolute power over them.
They talk about special cases, but the goal is different: it’s the opening to all abortions.
I don’t believe the words of some of these politicians—it’s a trap for the gullible who let themselves be led in the wrong direction.
Do you have the right to say that one life has less value than another? Who decides? If you accept that, the door is opened up for all kinds of arbitrariness."
The Pontifical Catholic University, the cardinal stated, “not only has the right but also the duty to defend life and reject abortion.”
We can’t say as Catholics or as religious people or those who respect the moral law, that the State has the right to let some human beings be killed and others not. If the State commits this offense, we must not go along with these false ideas, we have to give a counter-witness for the unconditional respect for every life.”
And for us, the states, the constitutional courts have neither the power nor the authority to change the natural law. They cannot define what matrimony is.
Governments are abusing their authority when they want to define the basic elements of human existence.
A legislature can’t contravene or reject the right to life."
Abortion in Chile has been illegal without exception since 1989. The country’s constitution states that “the law protects the life of those about to be born.” A two-thirds majority of each chamber of the Chilean Congress would be necessary to amend it.[1]
In January 2015, President Michelle Bachelet sent a draft bill to Congress to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, fetal non-viability and when doctors determine the mother’s life is at risk. The discussion is ongoing.
In February, in this context, the Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University, Dr. Ignacio Sanchez wrote in La Tercera that in the Pontifical Catholic University’s Health Department “no abortion will be performed.”
Our principles and most profound values are not going to change because of a certain bill of law. It is definitive.
I believe that it is an attempt on the life of an innocent one who does not have voice for itself. It is a discriminating act which is done on a person who cannot defend oneself.
While this bill has been under discussion, it seems that very clear signs are being given to this country consecrated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For example, as the bill was examined and gradually accepted by the Health Commission, on August 16 a series of unusual tides destroyed and flooded the coast and region of Valparaiso with waves of 24 feet high.
On September 16, on the very evening when the bill was to be submitted to the Constitution Commission, an earthquake of 8.3 magnitude hit the north of the country obliging a million people to leave their homes and killing 10 people. It was the third largest quake in 5 years.
In 2010, an 8.8 magnitude quake killed 500 people provoking a massive tsunami. A few days before, a new bill had been introduced to decriminalize abortion and allow therapeutic abortion. This bill never passed.
Since 1990, 15 abortion-related bills have been submitted by legislators to Congress for discussion: 12 in the Chamber of Deputies and 3 in the Senate. Half of these either increased the existing penalties or sought to create legal barriers to make the legalization of abortion more difficult. In November 2013, during the administration of President Sebastian Pinera, a law was published declaring March 25th as “the day for those about to be born and of adoption.”
The Chilean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology published in November 2014 a study conducted at the Melisa Institute which shows that both abortion-related mortality and hospital discharges due to abortion have followed a decreasing trend. For example, the number of maternal deaths from abortion has diminished by 96% in 20 years (1989-2009) and continues to decrease at a rate of 2% per year. Indeed, Chile is a paragon of maternal health in the entire American continent, having the lowest woman mortality rate of the continent.
Today Chile is the only country banning abortion with no exception. Let us pray that the Chilean people may keep their country from the bloody flood of abortion! God bless Chile! Virgen del Carmen bella, protega tu tierrra!
Footnote
1 This bill needs to go through 4 steps to become a law: Health Commission, Constitution Commission, Chamber of Deputies and Senate.
