On the 26th of November, 2018 on the Tengrinews.kz. website appeared a message on a proposal submitted to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan to allow 16-year-old Kazakhstan girls to terminate a pregnancy without parental consent. According to Tengrinews.kz. the initiative was voiced at a meeting of the social council of the Nur Otan party. Further in this report, it was said that public organizations will discuss this issue in open hearings, and if the idea is deemed justified, it will be recorded in the Code on public health and the health care system. Proponents of this proposal are authorizing 16-year-old Kazakhstan girls to terminate a pregnancy as a matter of medical assistance and the protection of so-called “reproductive health”.
In connection with the discussion of this new proposal, it is necessary, however, to analyze in depth the moral character of the abortion itself or of artificial termination of pregnancy. In the process of abortion occurs a deliberate annihilation of the originated human life. The emerged human life, regardless of its stage of development, is an individual, unique and distinctive reality in the whole universe. The unborn child is the most innocent, the weakest and the most defenseless creature.
No reason justifies the destruction of one of our already conceived future compatriots, who at the first moment of conception possesses the totality of all his genetic material and whose heart is beating on the 21st day of its existence in the child’s first home – the mother’s womb.
The destruction of the most innocent and the weakest creature with a heart beating is undoubtedly the greatest violence. There is an inseparable, created by the very nature psychological connection between a woman and her conceived child. Experience undeniably proves that the voluntary interruption of this connection by abortion leaves traces of a life-long injury in every woman’s soul.
In addition to fundamental concerns regarding the legalization of abortions, simplifying access to abortions for 16-year-old girls entails especially the following negative consequences: sexual promiscuity of the younger generation; girls even more become the subjects of meeting the sexual needs of guys and men in general; girls and guys become less able to build a strong marital and family life in the future, as the practice of extramarital and premarital sexual relations is one of the most destabilizing factors of the matrimonial and family peace and unity, contributing to the epidemic spread of divorce and destroying the happiness of children.
It is necessary to improve the moral education of young people on the priority of marital fidelity and family values, since the practice of premarital sexual relations among young people significantly reduces their ability for future marital fidelity.
A person who sincerely cares about the moral and psychological health of young people, future spouses, future fathers and mothers, and future families of the people, a person who genuinely cares about the human rights of conceived and unborn children, one’s future compatriots, cannot agree to the practice of abortion and all the more to facilitate access to abortions for underage girls with good conscience.
First President of Independent Kazakhstan, Nursultan Ábishuly Nazarbayev, has merit in putting forward a number of initiatives to strengthen the institution of the family, as the following: by presidential decree of Nursultan Ábishuly Nazarbayev, starting 2013, every second Sunday of September in Kazakhstan is a Family Day; on the 31st of October, 2018 President Nursultan Ábishuly Nazarbayev instructed to take measures to reduce the number of divorces in Kazakhstan.
The practice of abortion undeniably opposes the strengthening of the family, the basic unit of society, as well as the true moral and psychological health of the whole society, as this practice hurts the souls of mothers, and especially the souls of the future mothers, our valued Kazakhstan girls.
With this statement, the Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan want to make their constructive contribution to the current discussion of this issue by public organizations of Kazakhstan society.
December 1, 2018
Astana City, Kazakhstan
+ José Luis Mumbiela Sierra, Bishop of the Diocese of the Most Holy Trinity in Almaty, Chairman of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan
+ Tomasz Peta, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana
+ Adelio Dell’Oro, Bishop of Karaganda
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana
Priest Dariush Buras, Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Administration of Atyrau
Mitred Archpriest Vasily Govera, Delegate of the Congregation of the Eastern Churches for Catholics of the Eastern Rite in Kazakhstan and Central Asia
