Organization is second CCODP grant recipient that denounced right-to-life measure in Mexican state of Jalisco
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
MEXICO CITY, April 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An organization funded by the Canadian Catholic bishops, that denied its support for abortion in a letter just last month, signed a protest against a right-to-life amendment to the constitution of the state of Jalisco last year, LifeSiteNews (LSN) has learned. In the statement the "partner" of the Canadian bishops' development organization, Development and Peace (D&P), explicitly calls on the government of Jalisco to block the pro-life amendment and protect the "right" of women "to interrupt a pregnancy." This news agency has also discovered previously unreported pro-abortion material on the organization's website.
As LifeSiteNews reported last month, the "Agustin Pro Juarez Center for Human Rights" (Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro Juarez, A.C. - PRODH) is the signatory of two "human rights" statements that, in part, call for the legalization of abortion throughout Mexico (see original LifeSiteNews story at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031210.html).
PRODH is one of six Mexican groups funded by the Canadian bishops' Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) that have made or signed statements supporting the legalization or depenalization of abortion in Mexico.
In response to the evidence of its endorsement of a pro-abortion "human rights" declaration revealed by LSN, PRODH sent a letter to the CCODP claiming that, "We signed the reports for the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights led by the United Nations with the intention of supporting the general cause of human rights in Mexico; not in order to specifically support the legalization of abortion."
However, LSN has learned that just last year PRODH signed a public declaration denouncing a proposed amendment to the constitution of the state of Jalisco which would protect the right to life from conception to natural death. The statement, unlike the two others previously reported, is an exclusively pro-abortion statement.
Published on page 25 of the June 9, 2008, edition of the Guadalajara newspaper Publico, the declaration affirms that "attempting to re-penalize abortion will put the lives of the women of Jalisco at risk."
"The public initiative presented by the Association of Mexicans for the Lives of All to reform the political Constitution of Jalsico with the intention of protecting 'the life of every individual from conception until natural death' would eliminate the right of the women of Jalisco to interrupt a pregnancy, including when the life of the woman is in danger or when the pregnancy is the product of a rape," the declaration reads.The declaration also claims that "the initiative annuls fundamental women's rights, such as the right to life, to health, and to personal integrity and security."
"For the reasons given, we exhort the Congress of Jalisco to safeguard the lives of women and guarantee their fundamental human rights by impeding the approval of this initiative," it concludes (see scanned copy of declaration in Spanish at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009_docs/ProAbortStatement....).
Despite opposition from PRODH and other pro-abortion organizations, the amendment passed late last month (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09041415.html). Another D&P grant recipient, CAMPO, signed a protest against the amendment after its passage (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040611.html).
LifeSiteNews has also confirmed that PRODH displays a fourth pro-abortion "human rights" report on its own website, also signed by the group.
The "human rights" document, entitled "Report on the Situation of Violence Against Women in Mexico" (Informe Sobre la situacion de la violencia contra la mujer en México), contains a section on the "legal interruption of pregnancy in rape cases" (p. 14). The signatories complain that "in the state of Guanajuato there is an absence of legal mechanisms that guarantee access of women to legal abortion for rape, owing to the fact that the legislators (of three local legislatures) for moral, religious, and partisan ideological reasons, do not want to legislate to incorporate a legal mechanism into the code of penal procedures that would make effective the right to legal abortion for rape. ... the negation of this right is another form of violence against women, which in addition to having been a rape victim, is forced by the society and the government to give birth to the product of a violent act" (p. 15).
The report adds: "So that women achieve access to abortion under the requirements for impunity, changes should be demanded in the laws and norms so that respect for this women's right is guaranteed in an expeditious, free, and safe manner" (p. 15).
The document can be read in its entirety in Spanish on the PRODH website at http://www.centroprodh.org.mx/Publicaciones/Informes/info_pd....
The report, which contains other pro-abortion statements, was created under the auspices of another CCODP-funded group, the "All Rights for Everyone Network" (Red Todos los Derechos para Todos - TDT) (see page 1). In a letter to CCODP last month, TDT claimed that it "does not have any specific demand in relation to the question of abortion." In addition to the above-cited report, TDT has a statement on its website endorsing the Mexico City abortion law, which permits abortion on demand for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032313.html).
PRODH received $24,000 Canadian dollars in aid from CCODP during the 2007-2008 year.
As LifeSiteNews has reported over the last month, CCODP is funding organizations that favor the legalization or depenalization of abortion in many countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia (see links below).
A request for an interview made to PRODH last month was never answered.
Contact Information:
Contact information for every Canadian bishop
http://www.cccb.ca/site/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,...
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
2500 Don Reid Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1H 2J2
E-mail: cecc@cccb.ca
Phone: (613) 241-9461
Fax: (613) 241-9048
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Hundreds of Thousands in Canadian Lent Collection Money Funding Pro-Abortion Groups in Mexico
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031210.html
"Development and Peace" Funding Sixth Pro-Abortion Organization in Mexico
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09040611.html
Mexican Pro-Life Leader Confirms: Groups Funded by Development and Peace are Pro-Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09031710.html
Group Funded by Development and Peace Supports Mexico City's Abortion on Demand Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032313.html
Full Text of LifeSiteNews Interview With Gilio Brunelli of Development and Peace
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/090320b.html
