Defending Life on International TV

Report by Adolfo J. Castañeda, Vida Humana Internacional
March 2005


One of the main pro-abortion strategies being foisted on Latin America today is the so-called “morning after pill” (MAP). MAP is simply the use of higher dosages of contraceptive pills some time after a sexual act in which no contraceptives were used. In most of Latin American countries abortion is illegal. However, the pro-abortionists (IPPF, the UN, CFFC and others) deny that MAP has an abortifacient effect. They deny that MAP’s anti-implantation effect is abortifacient, an effect which is clearly mentioned by the FDA, Plan B and the rest of the pharmaceuticals that manufacture contraceptive pills. The reason they deny this, incredibly, is the unscientific claim that pregnancy begins at implantation and not at conception or fertilization, contradicting what every major embryology texts says. In this way abortionists can claim that MAP is not abortifacient in countries where abortion is illegal.

That was the main reason why Leonardo and Martha Lorena Casco, who were recruited for the pro-life cause by Magaly Llaguno in 1983, asked me to go to their country, Honduras, to tape a couple of programs for EWTN in Spanish. The Honduran Catholic Channel’s studio is where EWTN in Spanish tapes the popular series “Hablando claro con el Padre Alberto” (“Straight Talk with Father Alberto). And we did talk straight about MAP to a million plus audience! Leonardo, a lawyer and a pro-lifer with international experience, Fr. Alberto and myself completely took apart the bogus anti-life arguments about MAP and warned the entire Hispanic world about this chemical baby-killing arsenal.

But, that wasn’t all. I ended up taping not one, but three programs! The second one was on the hot issue of human cloning and stem cells. For that topic Fr. Alberto and I relied on the expertise of Alejandro Leal, PhD in genetics and President of HLI’s affiliate in Costa Rica. Fr. Alberto and I tackled the ethical part of the issue and Alejandro the scientific aspect of it. Obviously, faith and reason do not contradict each other, since they come from the same Author of Life. And life indeed is at stake here, millions of precious little embryos, our brothers and sisters, are killed every day by the techniques designed to clone them with the bogus pretext of discovering “cures” for incurable diseases. It is absolutely scandalous how the secular press trumpets this unethical lie. Rarely, if ever, do they cover the ethical and real cures derived from adult stem cell research.

Lastly, we taped a program on a lighter yet important topic “My Husband Doesn’t Want To Go to Church”. Latin American machismo coupled with the surrounding popular culture has led to this problem. It has reminded me of how important dads are for marriage, the family and the whole culture of life. If the father’s true Christian love is there, most likely there will be discipline, respect for God, woman and sexuality and most likely there won’t be promiscuous sex, abortions and the rest of the anti-life mess we are experiencing today.

During my stay at the Cascos’, where I enjoyed the best of Honduran hospitality, I had the opportunity to share and strategize at length with Leonardo, to be interviewed by the major Honduran radio station, “La Voz de Honduras” HRN, on the above issues and to meet with a Nicaraguan couple who have recently established a crisis pregnancy center (CPC) in that country. They know our affiliate there, Dr. Rafael Cabrera, and I told them about HLI’s CPC joint project with Mexican affiliate which was helpful to them.

I would like to thank EWTN, Fr. Alberto and most specially the Cascos, not only for giving HLI and VHI this opportunity to share the Gospel of Life, but also for the superb hospitality of the latter. I came back to the Miami office really enthused by this experience.