Peruvian pro-lifers demand resignation of abortion-supporting health official

Lima, Peru, Sep 12, 2011 / 15:53 pm

Pro-life activists held a protest Sept. 9 outside the offices of Peru’s Ministry of Health to demand the resignation of Susana Chavez. Chavez, a strong abortion supporter, was recently appointed as an advisor to the ministry.
 
Chavez is the director of PROMSEX, an NGO active in promoting the legalization of abortion in Peru.
 
Carol Maravi, the president of the National Organization United For Life and the Family, told CNA she was bewildered at the appointment of an abortion supporter as an advisor to the Health Ministry at a time “when there are many more important priorities in the state.” 

“Eradicating tuberculosis and polio, an illness that has caused problems recently, and caring for the health of our citizens” are more pressing issues “than the promotion of abortion,” she said.
 
Luis Chavez, a pro-life activist taking part in the protest, told CNA that Susana Chavez has been working to legalize abortion in Peru for 10 years. “She wants to take little steps first with therapeutic abortion and then abortion for other reasons. 

“She is a murderer of children,” he said.
 
Edy Rodriguez, a professor at the Pontifical and Civil Theology Department of Lima, explained that Susana Chavez “receives financial support from the International Federation of Planned Parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider in the world.”  She has an “agenda that is aimed at ending the lives of those who are most defenseless and she considers (abortion) to be a human right,” Rodriguez said.

“This is incompatible with the values of Peru, the fundamental right to life and the Peruvian constitution,” she added.