Wrong direction

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Sad news came out last month from one of the world's leading human rights organizations. Amnesty International is moving toward adopting a formal policy in favor of abortion.

Most members of the organization's Canadian section voted at the May 26-28 annual general meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to abandon its neutral position on abortion.

Alex Neve, the Canadian section's general secretary, told Catholic News Service that he would present the section's views at an International Executive Committee meeting in July in Portugal.

That committee has been authorized to come up with a policy by the end of 2006 on "decriminalization of abortion, access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion, and legal, safe and accessible abortion in the cases of rape, sexual assault, incest and risk to a woman's life."

The next International Council Meeting will decide in August 2007 if a woman's "right to physical and mental integrity includes her right to terminate her pregnancy."

Neve told CNS that the purpose of the July meeting is to establish a consensus among Amnesty International's 72 sections.

Both the British and New Zealand sections have voted to support abortion as "a legal, safe and accessible option for all women." The U.S. section has refused to disclose its position.

"If we can't find consensus, we will take a vote on majority rules," Neve said. "But at the moment, it's impossible to predict how it will unfold at the meeting."

Traditionally, Amnesty International has held that there is no generally accepted right to abortion in international human rights law. The move to adopt abortion as a universal right is part of its efforts to expand and develop its position on "sexual and reproductive rights" into a coherent policy against sexual violence and rape, officials said.

Abortion is legal in North America and in most of Europe. In Africa and Latin America it is permitted only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger. Laws are even more restrictive in Islamic nations.

Amnesty International was founded to fight for the release of prisoners of conscience, for fair trials for political prisoners and for an end to torture, political killings, disappearances and the death penalty. How tragic to see it moving to become an advocate for killing the world's most innocent beings under the guise of protecting the rights of women who will then have one more cross to bear.