THE VATICAN: Pope Benedict warmly praised anti-abortion activists yesterday as the Italian government considered deploying them into abortion advice centres to try to dissuade women from terminating pregnancies.
At the end of his weekly general audience to tens of thousands in St Peter's Square, the Pope hailed the work of an organisation called Movement for Life.
He lauded the group for its "courage" in opposing abortion, which the church considers murder, saying "you are writing pages of hope for the future of humanity".
Italy has for weeks been caught up in a national debate over whether to allow the use of an abortion pill, known as RU-486, which blocks the action of the hormone progesterone, needed to sustain a pregnancy.
While he did not mention RU-486, the timing of his words was politically significant.
Italian church leaders fear that the pill, in use in about 30 countries, will appeal more to women than traditional surgery.
Health minister Francesco Storace, of the right-wing National Alliance party, blocked its experimental use by hospitals which bought the drug from suppliers abroad. The pill, prescribed in the first two months of pregnancy, has not yet been approved for general use in Italy.
Mr Storace also said he planned a review of so-called "counselling centres" set up in 1978 when abortion became legal.
In a move the centre-left opposition says is aimed to woo the conservative Catholic vote, he wants the centres to include representatives from the Movement for Life.
Italy goes to the polls in April and the church's position on a host of issues could play a significant role in the result. The elections will pit former European Commission president Romano Prodi's centre-left grouping known as "The Union" against prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling centre-right.
Last June the church won a significant victory in a referendum that blocked attempts to dismantle Italy's strict law on assisted fertility and embryo research. After that victory, some politicians feared that the Church would eventually try to overturn the country's abortion law. - (Reuters)