“But she also offers them accompaniment so that they can forgive themselves and overcome the well-known symptoms of the trauma of abortion, which some call post-abortion stress syndrome and which those who promote abortion try to cover up,” the cardinal added.
When abortion is freely and consciously chosen, knowing that it carries with it the penalty of excommunication, he clarified, “a woman who aborts and those who cooperate in the abortion are automatically excommunicated, that is, without the need for an ecclesial authority to issue a decree.”
The Church does not suggest that women who undergo abortions be imprisoned, he explained, but rather that the law discourage abortion as something that is a gravely unjust action. He also denounced feminist groups that seek to turn abortion into a “human right” and manipulate public opinion by falsely claiming that it would lead to a decrease in maternal mortality rates.
Recognition of the right to life should be the first right guaranteed in the laws of a just society, the cardinal stressed. “As a consequence, abortion, like any other homicide, should be clearly identified as a crime that upsets the common good of society, with its corresponding penalties.”
Cardinal Rivera noted that those who profit from the morning-after abortion pill or drugs such as RU-486 are also participating in the same evil.
“In any case, we believe generally speaking that those who support the committing of a crime bear responsibility and should in some way be sanctioned. And those who profit from abortion should be punished,” he said.