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 The appeal came as the World Health Organization (WHO) advised women
in areas with the virus to protect themselves, especially during
pregnancy, by covering up against mosquitoes and practising safe sex
with their partners.
Zika has been linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies
in Brazil and is spreading rapidly in the Americas. The first known
case of Zika in the United States was reported last week by local
health officials, who said it was probably contracted through sex
and not a mosquito bite.
Catholics for Choice, a liberal advocacy group based in Washington,
said in a statement it would run ads in the International New York
Times and El Dario de Hoy in El Salvador on Thursday, the eve of a
papal trip to Cuba and Mexico.
"When you travel tomorrow (Friday) to Latin America, we ask you to
make it clear to your brother bishops that good Catholics can follow
their conscience and use birth control to protect themselves and
their partners," the ad will say, according to advance excerpts
released in the statement.
Catholics for Choice asked Francis, Latin America's first pope, to
"really stand in solidarity with the poor".
"Women's decisions around pregnancy, including the decision to end a
pregnancy, need to be respected, not condemned," it said.
The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at the moment of
conception and that abortion is killing. It bans artificial birth
control such as condoms, arguing that they block the possible
transmission of life.
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The ban, enshrined in Pope Paul's 1968 Encyclical "Humanae Vitae,"
is widely disregarded in many advanced countries, but activists say
there is still a stigma attached to birth control in some Latin
American countries because of the edict.
In 2010, former Pope Benedict said in a book that the use of condoms
to stop the spread of AIDS may be justified in certain exceptional
cases. The Vatican has so far not addressed the issue of
contraception in relation to the Zika crisis.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the WHO said: "Women who wish to
terminate a pregnancy due to a fear of microcephaly should have
access to safe abortion services to the full extent of the law."
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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