” ” "Having permitted the use of termination has not only failed to solve the problems that afflict many women and quite a few families, but has opened one more wound in our societies". This is the balance of the 30 years of legalisation of abortion, as outlined today by the Pope during the audience to the members of the Pro-Life Movement. "The reasons for taking such a painful decision as to have abortion are many and complex", explained Benedict XVI, who recalled that the Church "urges the institutions to promote any initiative in support of women and families in order to lay favourable conditions for receiving a new life and to protect the institution of the family based on the marriage of man and woman". "The lack of secure jobs, legislations that are often deficient in the protection of motherhood, the impossibility to ensure appropriate sustenance to one’s children": these are, according to the Pope, "some obstacles" to "many young people’s desire to get married and start a family", which result in "a growing feeling of mistrust of the future". Hence the need "for the institutions to put at the centre of their action the defence of human life and give priority to the family", helping the latter "with any legal means" to "promote its creation and educational work, in today’s difficult social context". (continued)
