On the day after the approval of the law permitting therapeutic abortion for the first time in Peru, Msgr. Jose Antonio Eguren—president of the Committee on families, youth, adolescents and children of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference—expressed, in an open letter to President Ollanta Humala, his "total rejection" and that of "the vast majority of Peruvians who deeply love life."
In Peru, therapeutic abortion has been legal since 1924, however, up to now, the hospitals did not have a medical protocol for its application; that protocol has been presented in recent days. Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren regrets this "immensely" and has asked Humala "with humility and Christian charity, and also in reference to the Constitution of Peru, article 2, paragraph 1, to protect the life of unborn children, and so to repeal the protocol on abortion."
"We know from the experience of similar regulations in other nations that this type of protocol does not produce any social change for the benefit of women. It's just an excuse for killing innocent people and then covering all abortions." The president of the Committee on Family, Children and defense of life CEP stressed that the only beneficiaries of this protocol "would be those who could benefit from the practice of abortion on women in difficulty because of an unexpected pregnancy." "Mr. President—writes Archbishop Eguren—so-called 'therapeutic' abortion does not heal anything, rather it kills an innocent life; just like any direct abortion, it is intrinsically gravely immoral, and it is not justified under any circumstances."
