Mexican evangelicals promote a referendum to defend right to life

Since 2007, abortion is legal in Mexico City - in all other cities it is allowed under certain circumstances. In Mexico the right to life is guaranteed but it is not specified when the citizen has access to this right.

Under these circumstances, the unborn in Mexico City only have a right to life three months after conception. Before that, they are not subject to the law.

Until today, more than 176,000 unborn children have been deprived of life in Mexico City alone. The figure is higher than that of those killed in the war against drug trafficking in this administration or in the previous administrations. Furthermore, if all the clandestine abortions in the country are counted, the sum would be close to one million abortions per year.

REFERENDUM FOR THE RIGHT TO LIFE

This is why a group of Mexican evangelicals have launched an initiative that aims to get 2.5 million signatures to enable them to hold a “popular referendum” on the right to life in the 2018 elections.

If the referendum takes place, every Mexican would have to answer the question: “Should the state protect human life from conception as a fundamental right?”

The future laws of the Mexican government would need to be based on the what the citizens decided.

A LONG AND COMPLEX PROCESS

The process until the approval of the referendum "is complex and extremely overwhelming, therefore it has never been possible to carry out a popular referendum like this in Mexico", Aarón Lara, one of the coordinators of the project, explains.

In order to get the signatures, the organisers of the campaign have "mainly called on evangelical churches, and we are also receiving the support of Catholic churches and civil society groups who want to join us, without political conditioning or interests of any kind", Lara explained.

SOCIAL COMMITMENT

"The Lord owns the times and we trust that He has not brought us here to go back. We are very moved because more and more pastors are committed to social issues they once questioned or even condemned as forbidden to Christians", he said.

Lara pointed out that, if the referendum goes ahead, "according to surveys of different institutions and companies, we think we could receive 80% of votes in favor."

"CNN in Spanish did a Twitter survey in Mexico City, the city most inclined to the no, and 69% of respondents said they disagreed with abortion," the coordinator of the Christian initiative explained.

"HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY"

Lara believes that "believers in Latin America can pray, and also send letters - especially to social organisations and to the Supreme Court of Justice of the nation-  claiming the right to life and the obligation of the State to protect this right since conception."

"This is a historic opportunity to position our values, promote unity and use our influence. The challenge is not easy, but, with the Grace of God, we can achieve it”, he concluded.

You can read more about this project here (in Spanish).