Education reform law is an “important step” in advancing culture of life, Church official says.One of Mexico’s 32 states just passed legislation that would require students to receive education supportive of respect for all human life.
The new education reform bill of the northern state of Nuevo Leon is meant to foster a “respect for life from conception to natural death” in students.
That should not be surprising, since according to Nuevo Leon’s constitution, “the state recognizes, protects and defends the right to life that every human being has. From the moment of conception that life comes under the protection of the Law and is considered as having been born with regards to all corresponding legal effects until its natural death.”
According to a report by Catholic News Agency, the education reform law also calls for the “inclusion, through the development of special training, programs for the employment of people with some kind of disability.”
State legislator Juan Carlos Leal, who introduced the education reform bill, told ACI Prensa, Catholic News Agency’s Spanish language news partner, that the idea behind the law was “to create a new generation of students that have values and respect, which unfortunately in Mexico, we have seen is being lost.”
“The initiative to recognize the right to life in education will help young people, adolescents and children learn to appreciate human life,” added Marcial Padilla, director of the ConParticipación platform. Padillia told ACI Prensa that he is hopeful the reform bill will “help reduce suicide rates, reduce addictions and will also help young people understand that abortion is not an option.”
Above all, students “will be able to know that abortion is always an attack on human life,” he said.
Also expressing satisfaction with the law was Fr. José Manuel Suazo Reyes, director of the communications office of the Archdiocese of Xalapa.
In a May 24 letter on behalf of the archdiocese, Fr. Suazo said that “Mexico continues to cry out that it loves and wants life” and that “abortion is not the solution” for distressed mothers, and that it is essential that the government support a broader culture of life in the country.” He continued:
“It’s important for the state to protect life, but it is also essential that it form citizens in respect and care for life. This reform creates awareness in students of the dignity that every human life has, thus contributing to the reduction of discriminatory, aggressive and even criminal behavior, as is the case with abortion.”
He said that “thousands of children are aborted year after year in Mexico City, where killing babies up to 12 weeks gestation is permitted.” The Nuevo Leon law is “a very important step in the culture of life,” he commented.
