by Manjula Fernando
The Catholic Church today appealed to the President to halt any amendments leading to relax existing Abortion Law of the country, cautioning that such measures would aggravate the social issue and deprive children of their right to life.
Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said "No one can deny an unborn child the right to life and we cannot condone this action under any circumstance." He was speaking at a press conference organised by SEDEC titled "The culture of Life" at its auditorium today.
He said the abortion law is being amended under the innocent pretext that this is to help rape victims and to prevent births of abnormal children but in reality this is a preamble to a larger hidden agenda forced upon us by external forces."There are hidden hands behind this move and the government should be cautious of these hidden forces," he said adding that this will one day lead to greater social issues and decrease in our population and work force.
"We have to address the issue of rape victims - the underage and unmarried pregnancies- in a different way. Abortion is not the solution. I do not think we should bring this culture into this country," Dr.Marlene Abeywardena, consultant gynecologist and a former President of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists told todays news conference said.