The prelates stressed the importance of “support[ing] those who choose to keep their child even in difficult situations” and “surround[ing] those who have resorted to abortion with our respect and compassion.”
“Let us pray that our fellow citizens will rediscover the taste for life, for giving it, for receiving it, for accompanying it, for having and raising children,” the bishops concluded.
The bishops said that France “would have honored itself by instead including the promotion of the rights of women and children” in its constitution.
“Of all European countries, even Western Europe, France is the only one where the number of abortions has not decreased and has even increased in the last two years,” the statement said.
The bishops “gladly relay the call made by several Catholic movements to fast and prayer” in response to the measure, they wrote.
Following the French Senate’s passage of the measure last week, the bishops had said in a statement that abortion “remains an affront to life in its beginnings” and that “it cannot be seen solely from the perspective of women’s rights.”
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