Mexico City, Mexico, Oct 9, 2020 / 05:22 pm (CNA).- Pro-life leaders in Mexico claimed a temporary victory October 5 when a vote on bill to legalize abortion was postponed.
The legislation would legalize abortion without parental consent for girls 13 years and older, effectively permitting abortion-on-demand.
With the exception of Mexico City and the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico currently prohibits abortion except in cases of rape or threat to the life of the mother.
The bill was being fast-tracked for an October 7 vote in the Senate without public hearings. However, it will now be subject a full debate in the Senate and public hearings where both sides can make their case for or against it.
The bill was introduced by senators in President Manuel Lopez Obrador’s Morena Party. It was then sent to the Senate Joint Committee on Gender Equality, Health and Legislative Studies for consideration. If it had passed out of committee October 5, it would have then gone to the full Senate for a vote on October 7.
The move would have bypassed public hearings on the issue where pro-life voices could have been heard.
The legislation, which would amend various sections of five federal laws, would not limit abortion at any point in pregnancy. It would also include free contraceptives for minors without parental consent.
The majority on the committee was reluctant to move so quickly to legalize abortion, leading to the decision to send the bill to “open parliament,” meaning there will be public hearings from both sides and a full debate in the Senate.
During the committee meeting, Senator María Soledad Luévano Cantú said that it was “irresponsible” to consider the bill amidst the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed 80,000 lives in the country.
“We are not looking at a simple issue. The legalization of abortion paralyzes, divides, confronts, and ignites passions,” she said.
Other committee members spoke for or against the bill, but the consensus was to postpone the Senate vote and have an open debate.
The Senate will eventually vote on the bill with possible amendments and send it to the Chamber of Deputies.
Pro-life organizations considered the move a temporary victory and credited citizen mobilization against the bill.
The National Front for the Family in Mexico launched a CitizenGo petition against the bill addressed to President Lopez Obrador, which to date has gathered 47,000 signatures. In addition, Twitter in Mexico lit up October 5 with opposition to the bill.
Marcial Padilla, director of the pro-life organization ConParticipación, said that the situation, “leaves us with the certainty that they felt the pressure from citizens. Most likely, this discussion will drag on. We will continue to pay close attention.”
“We’re going to make the senators reject this initiative. For the moment, today, something happened that is important: they had to listen to us,” Padilla said.
In an October 6 statement, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference warned that “the ‘culture of death’ is striking hard and repeatedly at the heart of the Mexican people” with this latest attempt to legalize abortion.
“We see with concern that at the bottom of these initiatives is in reality an attack on life, the dignity of the person, freedom of conscience, the best interests of children and the authentic right to health,” they stressed.
The prelates warned that at a time of pain and confusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there would be a “grave danger” in introducing “another initiative that divides, polarizes society and fractures the most important institution for Mexicans, which is the family.”
The bishops also said people’s needs should not be addressed by “ideological solutions” and cautioned that the bill opens the door to “the victimization and sexual exploitation of girls, adolescents and women.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
St. Pope John XXlll said that the reason for Mexico not having entered the Second World War, was because of the peoples love for Our Lady under the title of Guadalupe. In an approved apparition about 35 years ago, Our Lady of Guadalupe told the seer to tell the Bishops to send Her miraculous image to the United States of America, and She would end Abortion. The Bishops would not allow the removal of the miraculous image, disobeying Our Lady, but instead they sent an exact replica. Our Lady approved as She knows the obedience owed to the successors of the Apostles. I wonder if the Bishops of Mexico realize what they have done by disobeying Our Lady’s request. Now Mexico has a diabolical problem. There are growing Protestant sects that are anti-Catholic to the core. It is they who are deceiving the people, it is their sins of blasphemy and sacrilege against Our Lady and Christs Church that have opened the doors to satan to introduce abortion in Mexico. Before Vatican ll the people were well catechized, but then Vatican ll happened and the Faith is being lost in the Mexican Republic. Mexico and the United States must join together in prayer, fasting and penance asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to end abortion and to crush the anti-Catholic sects. Our Lady told St. Juan Diego that it is She who crushed the head of the serpent. May our Lady of Guadalupe crush satans evil head and end abortion and anti-Catholicism in the US and Mexico and through out the whole world.