"It is just as serious to kill a 10 year-old child or a 20 year-old adult as it is to kill a baby in his mother's womb," said Guatemalan Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno in a homily Sunday. "No one, under any circumstances, can assume the right to directly kill an innocent human being," he added.
The Cardinal's homily comes as pressure to legalize abortion increases from groups within the country, which groups are also supported by powerful international organizations. The United Nations has long sought to overthrow Guatemala's constitutional protections for unborn children.
It was due to those constitutional protections that the Guatemalan Supreme Court suspended a family planning law passed by congress in 2006, which would have legalized abortifacient drugs.
Cardinal Quezada noted that abortion is "killing of a child in his mother's womb." He added, "Everyone has the right to be born, and anything deliberately done to obstruct this right to life is a crime...there are some things we must call by their name. A crime can never be turned into a right."
(with files from the Catholic News Agency)
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
United Nations Orders Guatemala To Loosen Abortion Law
[URL]http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jul/01073102.html[/URL]
Canada Teams With Un To Target Guatemala For Abortion Advocacy
[URL]http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jul/01073102.html[/URL]
Guatemala Supreme Court Suspends Abortion and "Family Planning" Law
[URL]http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06020808.html
