As debate at the latest Latin American economic meeting continues, pro-abortion advocates have sought the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring victory to their cause of establishing abortion on demand for women and girls throughout the region.
Many participants at the meeting now taking place in Puerto Rico, called the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, were stunned last week when “Catholics” for a Free Choice (CFFC) and its Latin American counterpart, “Catolicas” por el Derecho a Decidir, released a prayer card of the Blessed Mother, with the words “The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is greater….For women’s lives, safe and legal abortion” superimposed over the image of the Virgin Mary. The back of the card says, “Dear Mary of Guadalupe, we thank you because your love is greater, because you listen to us without judging, because you know our heart and you respect the intimacy of our decisions.”
One observer said “how insulting it is that CFFC, a rich American pro-abortion group, would attempt to use the Latin American people’s strong devotion to Mary to impose their abortion agenda here.”
At the same press conference, CFFC released polling data that purports to show that Latin American Catholics overwhelmingly accept a broad reproductive rights agenda. According to the CFFC press release, “Before Catholics were more afraid of what the bishops and the Church were saying — now they are deciding for themselves. What we see is a more mature society and a more democratic one in which the most important guide is the individual conscience, not the institution of the Church. What we also see is how isolated the bishops are from society and from faithful Catholics.”
However, the very polling data seems to tell a different story. For instance, the report admits, “Catholics are divided on the question of whether one can have an abortion or support someone who does and continue to be a ‘good Catholic.’”
CFFC claims that, “a majority of Catholics in all three countries [Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico] believe abortion should be permitted in some or all cases.” But the report also states that “Only a small number of Catholics in the three countries say that public health entities should be required to provide abortions to those who ask for them.” What is more, the data show that the overwhelming majority of respondents, sometimes over 90 per cent, do not believe that abortion is justified “when the woman chooses,” “because of a lack of economic resources,” “when a contraceptive method has failed,” or “when a woman does not feel capable of taking care of a child at that moment.”
(This update courtesy of the The Culture of Life Foundation.)
