Between 2000 and 2017 around 33 countries expanded the scope of cases where legal abortion is permitted. These are statistics from the Guttmacher Institute in the United States.
In countries like Costa Rica, the debate is at its peak. The government is preparing a regulation that will broaden the situations in which abortions are legally allowed. In January, the country's bishops expressed their disapproval. Recently they justified it in a congress organized by the Catholic University of Costa Rica.
MSGR. MARIO ENRIQUE QUIROS
Grand Chancellor, Catholic University Costa Rica
“The Church plays an important role. One especially for pregnant women at every moment, every step of pregnancy, and the development of life. It is the Church's mission to form consciences and enlighten others as the heralds of Gospel of life.”
At the university, the invited experts warned that the government's pro-abortion proposal has serious irregularities. To begin with, it goes against the constitution of the country, which considers human life inviolable. Secondly, they want the new regulations to replace higher-ranking laws that do not allow the expansion of legal abortion.
MANRIQUE JIMÉNEZ
Former Magistrate
“A regulatory disposition can never substitute, vary, or broaden what a penal code says.”
FERNANDO SÁNCHEZ
Dean, Catholic University Costa Rica
“Unfortunately, by way of a technical standard, the government wants approve what they call 'therapeutic abortion,' and that means permitting abortion without consequences. It is an issue that should be discussed at a legal level, at a legislative level where it certainly has no political possibility of moving forward. Now they want to take it to the regulatory level and appeal to have such a broad and lax definition of health that anything goes.”
The growing acceptance of abortion worldwide is a cause for concern in Rome, where the pope has repeatedly denounced the tragedy of abortion. He explained this debate is not a religious issue, but a human one.
POPE FRANCIS
August 27, 2018
“We are not opposed to abortion for religious reasons. To consider abortion starting from religion is to step over [the realm of] thought. The abortion question has to be studied from an anthropological standpoint. There is always the anthropological question of how ethical it is to eliminate a living being in order to resolve a problem.”
Pope Francis says that abortion is a result of the throw-away culture, which marginalizes and eliminates those considered unnecessary and who are vulnerable.
