INDIA Abandoned fetuses found in Karnataka as world debates abortion

Just when the sentence of the Supreme Court of the United States marked a turn regarding the right to life, seven fetuses were found near a bus stop in Belagavi (India). According to the doctors, they were around five months pregnant and it is presumed that they were sacrificed after having determined the sex. The massacre of girls, the other face of the interruption of pregnancies in India.

Mumbai () – Seven aborted fetuses were found in a container in the Belagavi district, Karnataka state. It happened on Friday, June 24, just as the world was debating the US Supreme Court ruling on abortion law and the right to life. Mudalagi’s neighbors found the fetuses near a bus stop on the outskirts of town and reported it to the police. The Karnataka Health Department ordered an investigation into the incident.

“The fetuses were around five months old. They were presumably killed after sex determination,” said Mahesh Koni, a district family health and welfare officer. This is not the first time such incidents have occurred in the area: in 2013 At least 13 fetuses were found on the banks of the Hiranyakeshi River in Belagavi.

In India, since 1971, the law allows abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy, if the continuation poses a risk to the life of the woman or serious damage to her physical or mental health. However, despite being theoretically prohibited by law, the practice of selective abortions, which destroy the lives of girls, is widespread.

Dr. Pascoal Carvalho, member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), comments to : “The day the US Supreme Court’s decision on abortion heralded a ‘new pro-life dawn’, annulling Roe v. Wade, in India we are faced with this horrendous fact. These girls were murdered, nothing less: female infanticide is a heinous crime. It is a great tragedy. This mentality, which threatens life and against women, it will have serious consequences on society”.

“Recent reports from many states in northern India -continues Dr. Carvalho- reveal that ‘safe’ abortions are carried out that violate the 1994 law, which prohibits linking them to sex determination tests. There are several clinics prosecuted and several doctors arrested for it.”

There are those who describe as “horrible and medieval” the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Roe versus Wade case. However, as Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said, the decision should be taken as a “powerful invitation to reflection” because “in choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake. “.