On the occasion of International Children's day, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations declareы the right to life of unborn children.
Source: IRS
In its appeal to protect children from murder in the womb, the AUCCRO emphasizes that “abortion is not a solution to the problem.” Religious figures are convinced that the real manifestation of caring for a mother and her child should be a pro-family state policy, as well as support for public initiatives that “enable parents to develop their child and feel that they are not abandoned by the state and society alone in the face of such a difficult challenge.”
The Council of Churches has refuted a number of arguments that often justify abortions. We offer the full text of the AUCCRO appeal:
Appeal of the
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations
on the dignity and greatness of the gift of human life
Last November, we recalled the sad date of the centenary of the legalization of abortion. The first country in the world to legalize abortion in 1920 was Soviet Russia. After that, this process spread to other countries of the world. This led to an unprecedented number of children killed in the history of mankind, and also led to a change in the lifestyle and mentality of society, in which abortion was considered the norm of life.
On the eve of International Children's day, we, members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations appeal to all people of Good Will with words of inspiration, as those who believe in the one God-Creator and always stand up for those who are deprived of a voice in different social formations or cultures. This time, we strive to become the voice of unborn children, who are doomed to silent destruction by the modern "culture of death".
Refusal to procreate is an idea that was artificially imposed on the Ukrainian people and began to take root in their minds during the Soviet era. Abortion in Ukraine has become a mass, every day, and affordable phenomenon. The number of children killed before birth is measured in millions. No war has claimed such a large number of human lives.
The human right to life is guaranteed by a number of documents – both international and Ukrainian: Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10.12.1948), Article 21 of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms (04.11.1950), as well as Article 27 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which states: "Everyone has an inalienable right to life."
Responsibility for the situation in Ukraine falls on lawmakers who support and approve laws that allow abortions. Those who contribute to the demoralization of young people, the spread of sexual promiscuity and the frivolity of motherhood, who do not implement social policies to help families burdened with material and social difficulties, are also involved in this.
Abortion is not the solution. Even if it was made flawlessly from a technical point of view, everyone involved in it becomes murderers, even if they deny it or do not realize it. Often the consequences of abortion are mental disorders that are known as "post-abortion syndrome", infertility, cancer, conflicts and suffering in the family, especially the mother of the murdered child suffers, who usually finds herself face to face with a terrible and imposed choice. A true manifestation of caring for a mother and her child is the nurturing of pro-family policies in the state, supporting public initiatives that create a culture of life, love and acceptance and enable parents to develop their child and feel that they are not abandoned by the state and society alone in the face of such a difficult challenge.
From the point of view of medical ethics, abortion is a desecration and distortion of the high vocation of a doctor, whose task is to treat and save a person's life, and not to destroy it by direct intervention. In Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2010 adopted a resolution entitled "the right to conscientious objection in the provision of legal medical care". This document guarantees every person, doctor and medical institution the right to refuse to perform an abortion on the basis of their own objections of conscience.
It is a proven scientific fact that by performing an abortion, a woman kills a life, an unborn child – kills a person! Abortion is evil, and our laws should point this out.
The nascence of a person in the world occurs against the will of the person himself. Having been born, they are not yet aware of the fact of their existence and place in the world. Only over time, having learned to identify himself, his close environment and himself does the child begin to understand that he must be accepted – accepted as a gift. This situation with the birth of a person applies to both previous and subsequent generations. A person has no source of his own birth. There is one who has made a particular person and humanity as a whole reality. Therefore, a person must accept himself as a good gift.
Similarly, mom and dad, accepting themselves, should accept their own child as a gift. By loving each other and starting a new life, they become participants in this gift from God. They participate in the divine love for the child who is about to be born. When a child is born, joy overwhelms parents. The first smiles, the first tears, the first discoveries and the first games of the child transform the world of the whole family.
However, advocates of a culture of death are in a hurry to defend death sentences and spin the flywheel of lies and manipulation. Some myths are worth considering and refuting:
1."My body is my business." In fact, everyone can dispose of their own body (with moral and rational limitations). However, the child before birth, although it is in the womb of the mother, is not part of it. It is simply pointless to prove this. This is an obvious thing. If the child were part of the mother's body, then, like any organ separated from the whole body, it would simply rot.
2."It is the fetus and a clot of cells that is being aborted, not the child/person." Modern science and technology refute this ignorance-filled argument. A child from conception has human DNA. By the time a woman finds out about her pregnancy, the child already has the appearance of a person, although very small.
3. "A person is considered a person born, and the protection of life and rights concerns those born." This is a false statement that refers to the so-called positive right, when rights or attributes are attributed by agreement, a kind of social contract. This argument was used by the Nazi defense at the Nuremberg trials, saying that the destruction of "not such" people took place under the then positive law. The verdict was not based on natural law: "Do not kill" and whether a person is "such" does not depend on the social contract.
4. " Abortion is a right " is another false argument that aims to shape public opinion in favor of abortion. However, it falls apart before our eyes, if you call abortion by its real name. So can murder be a right just on the grounds that someone is capable and willing to kill?
5. "Abortions will still be performed so why banning them?" You can equally argue for the permissibility of robberies, murders, or other crimes. Why ban them if they will be committed anyway?
The generalized response to these and other pseudo-arguments in defense of the murder of unborn children shows one thing: abortions are performed because they do not want to be responsible for the "consequences" of promiscuous sexual relations and a hedonistic worldview. Sexual cohabitation, separated from marital love and openness to the birth of a new life, is irresponsible, and the victim who pays for sins is an innocent child who asks to be accepted as a gift.
The state cannot cherish the culture of death either by laws or taxes, financing abortions from the state budget, that is, from the taxes of believers. If it is not possible to prohibit abortion financial responsibility for it should be borne by the customer of the murder.
When implementing the political will of the state, one should always remember: the family is the basic cell of society. The more children there are, the more economic entities that contribute to the development of the state and its economy through the production and consumption of goods produced and the payment of taxes. Positive demographic dynamics are development, and negative ones are the ageing of the nation and decline.
We are conscious of our vocation – to form public consciousness and appeal to the conscience of politicians and statesmen, and today we appeal to everyone: the common good is life. Accepting life is accepting someone who is the author and creator of life. We choose life and prosperity, not death and decline!
+ SVIATOSLAV
Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations,
Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church,
Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych
Kyiv, May 31, 2021