Pope Benedict XVI Speaks Out Against Abortion, Mexico City Law Legalizing Procedure On Visit To Brazil

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday during a plane trip from Rome to Sao Paulo, Brazil, "seemed to suggest" the Mexico City legislators who voted for a law that allows pregnant women to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation had excommunicated themselves from the church, the New York Times reports. "Yes, the excommunication isn't something arbitrary -- it's part of the code" of church law, the pope said, adding, "The killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going into communion in the body of Christ" (Fisher/Rohter, New York Times, 5/10).

The pope also said that Mexican bishops who supported excommunication of the legislators "simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the church ... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment" (Chang, McClatchy/Miami Herald, 5/10). Marcelino Hernandez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, last month said that if the measure passed, any lawmaker who voted in favor of the measure would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church when the first abortion is performed under the law. Felipe Aguirre Franco, archbishop of Acapulco, after the bill passed last month said lawmakers who voted to approve the measure "will get the penalty of excommunication," adding, "That is not revenge, it is just what happens in the case of serious sins" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/25).

Benedict spokesperson Father Federico Lombardi attempted to "downplay" the pope's statement, the Los Angeles Times reports. "If the bishops haven't excommunicated anyone, it's not that the pope wants to," Lombardi said, adding, "Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. Politicians exclude themselves from Communion" (Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 5/10).

According to the New York Times, church law dictates that "those who play a material role in an abortion should not receive the sacrament of holy communion" and "have automatically excommunicated themselves from sharing in communion." Within the church, the automatic excommunication is understood to apply to women who undergo abortions and medicals professionals who perform or assist in them. However, church officials are debating over whether that law also applies to politicians who support abortion-rights laws, the New York Times reports (New York Times, 5/10).

Brazil Trip
The pope, who was greeted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva in Sao Paulo, was starting his four-day visit through Latin America (New York Times, 5/10). "I know the soul of this people, as with in all of Latin America, preserves the radically Christian values that will never be canceled," the pope said upon his arrival to the city, adding that he supports "the respect for human life, from its conception to its natural decline" (McClatchy/Miami Herald, 5/10).














Da Silva on Monday in a radio interview said that although he personally opposed abortion as president he believes that "the state cannot abdicate from caring for this as a public health question, because to do so would lead to the death of many young women in this country" (New York Times, 5/9). He also said he favored "a good family-planning process of sexual education (so that) possibly we wouldn't have the quantity of undesired pregnancies that we have today" (McClatchy/Miami Herald, 5/10).

Abortion in Brazil is allowed only in limited circumstances; however, it is estimated that between one million and two million illegal abortions are performed annually in clandestine clinics, according to the New York Times. Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao in March suggested altering legislation that calls for one- to three-years prison sentences for women convicted of having illegal abortions. On Tuesday, Temporao said that abortion is an issue that "should be treated delicately," adding that "some sectors of the church have made declarations that are very aggressive and quite distant from the teachings of Jesus" (New York Times, 5/9).

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