"Morning-after" pill divides Mexican leaders

The decision last month by Mexican President Vicente Fox to make the abortifacient "morning-after" pill available for free at public hospitals is dividing his government.

The pill has been available in Mexican pharmacies for years, but as of July 11 it was made available for free in health clinics that aid Mexico's poor. Mexican bishops responded with a strongly worded condemnation of the move.

A week after Health Minister Julio Frenk announced the decision, Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, after meeting with Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City, asked President Fox to re-evaluate the move. Cardinal Rivera continues to campaign against the pill; in Mexico City after Sunday Mass on July 17, he said, "This is a measure which Mexico does not need. There is no reason to place such a weapon in the hands of people in order to kill the innocent."

Abascal called on the government to cancel the program July 18, declaring that his "commitment to life is inalienable," according to a report in The Arizona Republic .

The Church in Central and South America, areas that are still strongly Catholic, has been fighting a running battle with international population control organizations that have targeted the areas for depopulation. A major weapon of these UN-sponsored groups is the "morning-after" pill that they have coerced these countries to adopt under the misleading name "emergency contraception."

The "morning-after" pill, marketed as "Plan B," works by giving a high-dose of the same hormones found in regular birth control pills, with one of its main functions being to prevent the existing embryonic child from implanting in the uterine lining.

CWN - Catholic World News (8. august 2005)