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have got to do something positive to help in caring for people who otherwise would be neglected. I don't think it will be sufficient to make a law that will simply prohibit abortion, and we know there will always be attempts to violate the law. We must offer an alternative to people who find themselves in this position. Look at the millions we are spending trying to enforce laws on drugs and we are hardly scraping the surface.

Senator Cook. You do understand we are putting ourselves in a circumstance where either the implementation of a Helms or Buckley amendment resolution into the Constitution or both, puts us into the field of criminal penalties, not civil penalties. We have got to face up to that and what the significance of that criminal penalty is on society when we have been given all kinds of figures as to what the illegal situation was before the Supreme Court decision.

We are going to have to make an evaluation of all of the State laws already in existence; have to make an interpretation.

Cardinal CODY. It seems to me you are trying to eliminate one evil by creating another. The illegal abortions went on, even though some States had positive legislation and prosecution of this evil. Yet the Supreme Court now has made abortion legal, and that has become a greater evil than it was before. This is where we are enunciating the moral principle that the destruction of life, unborn, youthful life or at old age is totally wrong, and society, especially, cannot go ahead with this because it will lead to much more serious consequences. Senator Cook. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator BAYH. Thank you very much, Your Eminences, for giving us this much of your time. We appreciate it very much.

Cardinal MEDEIROS. Thank

Cardinal KROL. Thank you.

you.

[A publication of the U.S. Catholic Conference follows:]

Documentation on

THE RIGHT TO LIFE

AND ABORTION

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS

UNITED STATES
CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

1974

Publications Office

UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC. 20005

(181)

PASTORAL MESSAGE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE. National Conference of Catholic Bishops. February 13, 1973

55

STATEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR PRO-LIFE AFFAIRS.
National Conference of Catholic Bishops. January 24, 1973

59

DECLARATION ON ABORTION. National Conference of
Catholic Bishops. November 18, 1970

61

STATEMENT ON ABORTION. National Conference of Catholic
Bishops. April 22, 1970

63

STATEMENT ON ABORTION. National Conference of Catholic
Bishops. April 17, 1969

65

EXCERPT FROM HUMAN LIFE IN OUR DAY. Pastoral Letter, National Conference of Catholic Bishops. November 15, 1968....

69

EXCERPTS FROM CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE
MODERN WORLD. Second Vatican Council. December 7,

1965

71

TESTIMONY OF UNITED STATES

CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
PROTECTING UNBORN HUMAN LIFE
BEFORE THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE
ON THE JUDICIARY

March 7, 1974

On repeated occasions during the past ten years the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has spoken on the security of life, the right of each individual to life, and on the morality of abortion. Perhaps the most succinct expression of these repeated statements is contained in the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, addressed to all mankind:

For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the sur-
passing ministry of safeguarding life-a ministry which
must be fulfilled in a manner which is worthy of man.
Therefore from the moment of its conception life must
be guarded with the greatest care, while abortion and
infanticide are unspeakable crimes. [no. 51]

Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as
any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or
willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of
the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted
on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; what-

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