- LIFE SITE NEWS - Pierre Boralevi - MAR 30, 2022 -
The former president of Brazil, who is now running again, is also known for his support of same-sex civil unions and adoption by homosexual couples
SAO PAULO (LifeSiteNews) — A Brazilian cardinal has criticized his country’s former president and presidential candidate Luiz Lula da Silva for his views on abortion.
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, described Lula’s pro-abortion comment in a March 24 interview with radio channel Super 91.7 FM as “unfortunate.”
Lula said that though he was personally against abortion, he would treat it as an issue of “public health” should he be elected president for the second time in the upcoming Brazilian presidential election next October.
“I, Lula, father of five children, am against abortion and always have been. Now, [as] the head of state, [I would need] to treat the matter as public health,” he said.
The father of five explained that due to the fact that abortion in Brazil is a crime, many women “run to other countries to do it in secret,” and many others “die on the street” as a result.
“It is up to the state to give these people the ability to get decent [medical] treatment; that’s the role of the state,” argued Lula.
Commenting on his statement, the archbishop of São Paulo recalled that “abortion, whether practiced individually or promoted by the state, always ends up causing the taking of human lives.”
According to a survey conducted by the Orbis Institute for Brazilian newspaper Diáro do Poder, less than 17% of the Brazilian population is in favor of abortion.
Though Lula claimed to be “personally against abortion” in his interview with 91.7 FM, this isn’t the first time he has used pro-abortion rhetoric, or defined the killing of babies as “healthcare.”