[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: Brasil Bishop: Excommunication for those who Use or Distribute Morning After Pill

Tue Jan 29 17:43:22 MST 2008

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 29 Jan 2008 AD #2

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Brasil Bishop: Excommunication for those who Use or Distribute Morning 
After Pill*

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

BRASILIA, January 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian Archbishop 
Jose Cardoso Sobrinho has condemned a plan by Recife city officials to 
distribute the morning-after pill during the upcoming Carnival festival 
and has warned that those who use the pill are subject to excommunication.

"This policy is wicked and immoral, and in this case, both those who use 
it and those who incite its use are committing a crime punishable by 
excommunication," Archbishop Cardoso said.

The Archbishop also noted that distribution of the abortifacient pill 
"is aberrant and illegal," since abortion is illegal in Brazil.

The Archbishop's stand against this "aberrant and illegal" plan may fly 
in the face of government initiatives, but falls in line with the 
opinions of most Brazilian citizens.

A new poll carried out by the Datafolha firm in Brazil has revealed that 
87% of Brazilians think that having an abortion is "morally wrong," and 
that less than 1% of those surveyed approve of abortion for any reason.

"The result of the research is a cold shower for the pro-abortion 
strategy of Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao and shows a clear 
tendency that we have seen in recent polls. The government's 
pro-abortion campaigns are at odds with the real Brazil," said Carlos 
Alberto di Franco, professor of Journalistic Ethics at the University of 
Navarra in Brazil.

"Brazilians are against abortion. It's not just an opinion, it is a fact 
statistically measured in an opinion poll. Only because of this does the 
government move more slowly. There are moral issues that go beyond mere 
statistics; but the legalization of abortion, today and right now, would 
be a completely anti-democratic act," Di Franco added.

Recife, with a population of about 1.4 million, hosts one of Brazil's 
most colorful and frenzied carnivals. According to Mayor Joao Paulo Lima 
e Silva the morning-after-pills will not be given out wantonly, but 
rather for cases of rape and broken condoms.

Bishop Antonio Augusto Dias Duarte of the Life and Family Commission of 
the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops said, "The church has 
nothing against having fun during carnival, but the banalization of 
human sexuality is something we cannot tolerate. It will only serve to 
diminish inhibitions and encourage orgiastic behavior. Though the pill 
is marketed as a contraceptive, critics say it prompts abortion. The 
church opposes both."

Bishop Duarte also criticized the federal government's plan to 
distribute millions of condoms nationwide during the festivities, 
ostensibly to help fight AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in 
the world's largest Roman Catholic country.

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