Argentinean bishop condemns mid term abortion, stresses that Church 'cannot remain silent'

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jun 17, 2010 / 06:22 pm (CNA).- An Argentinian Bishop condemned a court ruling allowing a local woman who was five months pregnant to undergo an abortion, stressing that the “Church cannot remain silent because her vocation is to defend man against everything that degrades him.”

The abortion was carried out last weekend in a hospital in Mar del Plata after doctors said the child had no chance of surviving after birth.

In a statement, Bishop Juan Alberto Puiggari of Mar del Plata in Argentina condemned the act questioned if the dramatic nature of the situation led those involved to forget that an innocent human life was at stake.

“Can the gravity of the case justify the deliberate taking of an innocent human life at the beginning of its existence? Should the pressure that such difficult circumstances cause exempt us from defending the first of all human rights, which is life, and reminding administrators and health care workers of the grave responsibility they have to care for that life?” the bishop asked.

“The great contradiction of today’s culture is that on the one hand we proclaim human rights but on the other we violate the rights of the most defenseless,” Bishop Puiggari said, adding that the country’s Constitution establishes the protection of life from the moment of conception.

“As a Church we are aware of the suffering of a mother who finds herself in such a painful and dramatic situation, but we also know that the consequence of an abortion is a wound in the heart that is difficult to heal.”

“We must not judge anyone, and much less on the basis of the faith,” the bishop qualified. “But it is good to remember that the administration of justice is only just when it is exercised in conformity with the truth and the moral good.”

Reaffirming the inalienable right to life, Bishop Puiggari said women who are in crisis pregnancies need a commitment from society to reach out them and provide them the means they need to face their difficulties and overcome them.

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