SANTO DOMINGO.- Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez yesterday warned he’ll not yield an inch against the intentions by "butcher doctors, merchant legislators" and authorities that seek to legalize abortion, affirming that it’s an attempt to impose capital punishment in the Dominican Republic, whose feminists describe as politcal blackmail.

He said the church will be on the alert to prevent the approval of that practice, because "it’s a way to look to open a gap to later impose all others (capital punishment), that’s what’s happening throughout the world and it’s a pity, because nothing can justify the killing of a creature."

"Never, I‘ll never yield an inch on that point, because for me it’s a perversion, an iniquity, it’s absolutely an unjustifiable crime," Lopez Rodriguez said emphatically.

Feminists call it political blackmail

The feminist leader Denise Paiewonsky on Sunday said the Catholic Church used the Sermon of the Seven Words as political blackmail to pressure the legislators in charge of debating and approving the bill to Reform the Constitution.

She said in the last few months the catholic leaders are increasingly nervous with the topic of the partial legalization of abortion and their statements have become more threatening, their criticism of the Government has intensified and the antiabortion campaign reached the limits of obsession.

Paiewonsky, in addition to recriminating the catholic clergy’s leadership for its participation in the 1963 coup against Juan Bosch, said the attacks against president Leonel Fernandez’s government stem from, contrary to the PRD and the PRSC parties, the ruling PLD has yet to dictate an antiabortion policy to its legislators.