AMERICA/URUGUAY - “Our opposition to abortion is not based on premises of a religious nature; the right of every human being to be born is a right inscribed in human nature": Bishops state

Florida (Agenzia Fides) - During a plenary assembly 7-14 November in Florida to discuss Pastoral Guidelines for 2008-2012, will be approved in April next year, the Catholic Bishops of Uruguay reflected on the socio-political situation of the country with the help of experts and the situation on the local Church with the help of pastoral vicars, persons in charge of various pastoral sectors and the conclusions and recommendations of 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida. The Bishops all took part in the annual national pilgrimage to the national Marian shrine of Our Lady of the Trienta Tre, on Sunday 11 November and a spectacle "Uruguay sings to Our Lady of the Trienta Tre" (see Fides 8/11/2007 and 14/11/2007).
Together with the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Argentina and the bishops of the dioceses of Concordia and Gualeguaychú, close to Rio Uruguay, it was agreed to continue efforts to encourage the respective communities to reflection and prayer to promote understanding, agreement and peace.
The Bishops also discussed the situation since the approval by the Senate of a law of Reproductive and Sexual Health, which includes the depenalisation of abortion. In a message with the title “Defending human life we all stand to benefit" the Bishops explain the scientific and juridical reasons for the Church's opposition to the depenalisation of abortion. They affirm that the child growing inside its mother is "a person who has rights. He or she is not ‘something’ but ‘someone’". The bishops say they realise that many women find it very difficult to face an unwanted pregnancy, but they insist that the solution is not to eliminate the new life. Moreover to "legalise abortion does not turn something evil into something good ", on the contrary with abortion everyone stands to lose: “a life is lost, the mother suffers wounds which will be difficult to heal, the doctor goes against the very essence of his noble profession, society loses a life refusing to open its arms, the culture of life suffers a blow".
The Bishops affirm: “the basis of our position against abortion is not primarily religious; the right of every human person to be born is inscribed in human nature", and they conclude underlining the necessity to have children, "in the face of emigration and demographic winter which threaten the future ". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/11/2007; righe 31, parole 417)