(CNSNews.com) – During a pro-abortion protest on Sept. 28, demonstrators vandalized parts of Mexico City, lighting fires in front of the metropolitan cathedral and burning the Chamber of Commerce building, which sparked another six fires that eventually were put out by firefighters. Some protesters reportedly used hammers and baseball bats to break windows.
The protest occurred on International Safe Abortion Day, which was designated as such because the state of Oaxaca had legalized abortion several days earlier. Mexico City and Oaxaca are the only two Mexican states that have legalized abortion, with some restrictions, in the largely Catholic country. In Mexico there are 31 states plus the capital city, Mexico City.
According to local media outlet El Universal, the city utilized an an all-female law enforcement “tactic unit for the assistance of the population.” The female officers sought to contain some of the protestors from creating fires and vandalizing historic areas of Mexico City.
Videos shared by the magazine National Review show some of the protestors gathering at the fence in front of the cathedral to start fires.
In a tweet, the Archbishop of the Diocese of Mexico said, “I greet and recognize all people that today joined to pray and care for the churches of Mexico City, as well as stood up for their right to demonstrate in liberty and peace. The Church rejects emphatically every form of violent confrontation. Let us defend dialogue, tolerance and love for one’s neighbor as tools to build the country for all.”
Some of the women who were participating in the protest painted different phrases on the streets and on some public sculptures, according to El Universal. Chanting phrases like “abortion, yes, abortion, no, that is my decision,” the demonstrators want to legalize abortion in every state of Mexico.
On Sept. 25, legislators in Oaxaca legalized abortion up through the 12th week without restriction, reported The Guardian. Before this legislation, abortion was legal only in several instances: in cases of rape and in cases where the mother’s life was at risk.
Proceso reported that most of the pro-abortion women were wearing green bandanas to symbolize the “global day of action for access to legal, safe and free abortion,” a movement that has mobilized some women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The movement began in Argentina, where thousands of women have also protested in favor of abortion.
Mexico’s population is 83% Catholic and 7% Protestant. Five percent identify as non-religious.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which details the faith and moral rules for Catholics, “From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a 'criminal' practice (GS 27 § 3), gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life.”
