165
you are killing each day in clandestine warehous-
es, in rings of prostitution, in children used for
begging, in exploiting undocumented labour?
Let us not look the other way. There is great-
er complicity than we think. The issue involves
everyone! This infamous network of crime is
now well established in our cities, and many peo-
ple have blood on their hands as a result of their
comfortable and silent complicity.
212.âDoubly poor are those women who en-
dure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and
violence, since they are frequently less able to de-
fend their rights. Even so, we constantly witness
among them impressive examples of daily hero-
ism in defending and protecting their vulnerable
families.
213.âAmong the vulnerable for whom the
Church wishes to care with particular love and
concern are unborn children, the most defence-
less and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts
are made to deny them their human dignity and
to do with them whatever one pleases, taking
their lives and passing laws preventing anyone
from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as
a way of ridiculing the Churchâs effort to defend
their lives, attempts are made to present her po-
sition as ideological, obscurantist and conserva-
tive. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely
linked to the defence of each and every other
human right. It involves the conviction that a
human being is always sacred and inviolable, in
