MIAMI — Mother Teresa, winner of the Nobel Prize for her work with India’s poor, Saturday denounced abortion as a sin and encouraged the public to provide health care for AIDS victims.
A woman who has an abortion kills not only her child, “but commits the terrible sin of killing one’s ‘own conscience,” the 75-year-old nun told about 1,600 people at a breakfast sponsored by an antiabortion organization.
“If you don’t want the child. Give it to me, I want it,” she said to applause.
Asked at a news conference later if abortion would be a good solution for overpopulation in India and other Third World countries, Mother Teresa said the sisters of her community teach the poor about natural family planning.
“We have no right to use contraceptives which destroy,” she said. “We know that abortion has become the destroyer of peace, of love and of unity.”
During her speech, Mother Teresa urged the community to help victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, saying it would give “a very beautiful opportunity to show our love for the people who feel unwanted.”
She opened a house for AIDS patients in New York City last Dec. 24.
Later, Mother Teresa told reporters she planned to travel to Haiti on Saturday night for four days to visit members of the religious community she founded, the Missionaries of Charity.
Next month, she said she will travel to Cuba with permission of that government and at the invitation of church leaders.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 4, 1986
