CV NEWS FEED // Montana’s Catholic bishops have issued a joint statement urging state residents to reject a proposed amendment that would enshrine “abortion rights” in the state constitution.
The initiative, CI-128, seeks to allow late-term abortion, abortion of partially-delivered babies, and abortion by dismemberment. The amendment would also keep a minor’s abortion a secret from parents.
The amendment’s supporters are currently gathering the more than 60,000 signatures required for CI-128 to head to the ballot in November.
Bishop Austin A. Vetter of Helena and Bishop Jeffrey M. Fleming of Great Falls-Billings, as well as Bishop Emeritus Michael W. Warfel of Great Falls-Billings, denounced the proposed amendment in their recent statement as “opening the door to a host of practices that violate fundamental rights to life and dignity.”
“As Catholics, we treasure life as a precious gift from God and recognize our sacred duty to nurture and protect every human life from the moment of conception through natural death,” the bishops wrote, continuing:
Created in the image of God with a dignity not of our own making, each person is a unique and unrepeatable masterpiece of God’s creation. This recognition of the infinite dignity enjoyed by all persons informs our understanding of the basic rights and protections to which all human beings are entitled. When those rights are threatened, the Church must speak up with clarity and boldness.
According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, Montana currently bans abortion after the baby reaches viability, around 24 to 26 of pregnancy. State law also requires parents to be informed if their child under the age of 18 is seeking an abortion.
The bishops stated that not informing parents of their child’s wish to have an abortion imposes “a culture of secrecy that would undermine families.”
It would also “expose underage mothers to exploitation” and “provide cover for those who would victimize underage women by committing abuse, human trafficking, and other crimes,” according to the bishops’ statement.
“Faced with this unprecedented threat to human life, we urge all people of goodwill to decline to sign the petition to place this dangerous amendment on our ballot,” the bishops concluded. “Trusting in God, we invite all Montanans to pray for the defeat of this Constitutional Initiative and stand in defense of women, children and all those threatened by this extreme proposal.”
The post Montana bishops urge state residents to reject abortion ballot initiative appeared first on CatholicVote org.