Bishop Winston Fernando The president of the Sri Lanka Catholic Bishops’ Conference has called on local media not to attack Church leaders over their anti-abortion stance.
Bishop Winston Fernando said that media freedom does not constitute a right to target religious leaders who condemned a government decision to allow abortion in a broader range of circumstances.
“We can’t accept either condemnation of the Catholic teaching on morality or any personal attacks, insults or disrespectful remarks of the authorised teachers of the Catholic Church,” said Bishop Fernando.
“The Catholic Church has the mandate and the right to teach whether the Faithful or other people accept the teaching or not,” said Bishop Fernando.
“Anyone is free to accept or reject the teaching, but no one can cast aspersions on the teachers or writers.”
Currently abortion is only legal to save the life of the mother. However, the country’s cabinet approved legislation to be presented to parliament which would legalise abortion when a pregnancy is due to rape or if a foetus is diagnosed with a ‘lethal’ congenital malformation.
According to media reports, 10 to 12 percent of maternal deaths are due to excessive bleeding and infections after unsafe and illegal abortions. An estimated 650 illegal abortions take place in Sri Lanka every day.