by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
As we engage in our pro-life work, let us resolve never to give up in our efforts to reject the culture of death that threatens to overwhelm us. Be alert! Be vigilant! Anti-life forces are at work constantly trying to impose their agenda on us.
It is noteworthy that Pope Francis, in his recently published Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of Love’, refers to abortion as being “horrendous”. He rightly states that: “So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the ‘property’ of another human being…The Church strongly rejects the forced State intervention in favour of contraception, sterilisation and even abortion…
“Here I feel it urgent to state that, if the family is the sanctuary of life, the place where life is conceived and cared for, it is a horrendous contradiction when it becomes a place where life is rejected and destroyed… The family protects human life in all its stages, including its last” (83).
Two of the fundamental principles of Catholic Social Teaching are the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person. Our Catechism makes it clear that: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation (2270, and 2273).
Read the Parliamentary Network For Critical Issues articles (www.pncius.org/update.aspx?id=140 ): “The world has adopted an ambitious plan to change the world in ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’…The push has begun to use the 2030 Agenda to increase global access to abortion as a component of ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ as stated in target 3.7… and 5.6.
“If successful, the lives of unborn children will be valued on subjective views of utility and wantedness as the world experiences an unprecedented fifteen year push for access to abortion…
“Other pro-abortion efforts can be found in initiatives related to the goals of the 2030 Agenda…promoting abortion perpetuates the throwaway culture that Pope Francis warned the United Nations about…Including abortion in the 2030 Agenda ensures that one whole group of individuals, unborn children, will be ‘left behind’ and considered to be ‘disposable’.”
While being proactive, we must also keep abreast of the way in which the pro-choice brigade is moving. Read the April 21 report by Stefano Gennarini of the Centre for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), on the outcome of the 49th Session of the Commission on Population and Development, held April 11-15 at the UN, New York, entitled: ‘Strengthening the demographic evidence-base for the post-2015 development agenda’.
Inter alia, Gennarini states in his report, ‘UN Commission Steamrolls Over Pro-Life/ Pro-Family Concerns’: “The UN Commission on Population and Development chose to embrace ambiguity on divisive social issues in a resolution about the need for accurate data to measure progress on UN development policy…The annual commission chose language that might be construed within the UN system as a license to promote homosexual rights, abortion rights, sexual rights, and other controversial social policies despite insistent calls to anchor controversial terms in the context of previous agreements that excluded these notions. This comes at a volatile time, as the UN system ramps up advocacy to get countries to relent on contentious issues at the behest of powerful developed nations.”
While CCSJ welcomes the news that our Government will “observe the law of the land” on abortion (Offences Against the Person, Ch 11:08, s. 56 and 57), let us not let down our guard. We must renew our resolve to defend life; to be a voice for the voiceless, vulnerable unborn child.
And as we reach out to assist pregnant mothers and their families, as well as those who give birth to their children, let us also lobby for, for example: Better health care services for all; The reduction of poverty and social exclusion; More informed educational programmes/counselling facilities in educational institutions and in local communities about issues such as family life, values, life skills, responsible parenthood, natural family panning methods; Well publicised information about centres/organisations where pregnant women in need can go for help; The availability of workplace crèches and community nurseries; and Better employer practice in relation to maternity and paternity leave.
