LifeNet

Amnesty International to support the "right to abortion?"

The international human rights group, Amnesty International, currently takes no position on abortion.

However, that could very well change, as they are polling their national affiliates in different countries, as to whether the "right" to abortion should be viewed as a fundamental human right.   

Already, the Great Britain and New Zealand affiliates have gone pro-abortion. British and New Zealand Amnesty International Groups Back Abortion

TAKE ACTION: Tell Amnesty International that you don't want it to become a pro-abortion organization fighting to make abortion legal worldwide. Go to http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/engindex to contact the group and express your opposition. Also, use the group's web site to find your national affiliate and tell them you oppose the idea.

One of our correspondents contacted Amnesty International with a query regarding thieir considerations. Here is the reply she received:

From: Betsy Ross <[email protected]>
>Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 16:08:23 -0400
>>
>Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns.
>
>   Although AI does not currently take a position on abortion, you are
>   correct that the AI movement is contemplating whether and how to
address
>   it.
>
>   As you probably already know, our policy agenda, and the policies
>   themselves, are determined by AI members through a democratic process.
>   The reason that abortion is being discussed right now is that members
>   throughout the movement felt that AI's work to stop violence against
>   women and promote women's human rights necessitates that we consider
>   whether a more comprehensive policy on sexual and reproductive rights,
>   potentially encompassing certain abortion-related issues, would enable
>   AI to be more effective in these areas.  This was expressed in a
>   decision taken last August at AI's 2005 International Council Meeting
>   (ICM), which is AI's highest decision-making body.
>
>   The 2005 ICM decided that AI will develop a policy statement and a
>   strategy for defending and promoting sexual and reproductive rights.
At
>   the same time, the ICM decided that an extended consultation process
>   should be undertaken to determine whether AI should adopt a policy on
>   abortion and how such a policy should be formulated.  We have just
>   embarked on this process.  The first stage involves considering whether
>   and when AI should develop policies on three specific issues that have
>   been identified as particularly urgent in the context of AI's campaign
>   to stop violence against women:  1) access to health care for the
>   management of complications arising from abortion; 2) access to
abortion
>   in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest or risk to a woman's life; and
>   3) the removal of criminal penalties for those who seek or provide
>   abortions.
>
>   All other abortion-related issues, including whether a woman's right to
>   physical and mental integrity includes a right to terminate pregnancy,
>   will be considered by the 2007 ICM.  The extended timeframe for
>   consultation and decision-making is a reflection of the recognition
that
>   these are profound decisions that require reflection and discussion so
>   that the AI movement can move forward as one.
>
>   Please let us know if you would like to receive an update on how this
>   process is unfolding.  We expect that we may have some new information
>   in about six months or so.

Sounds bad!

Here is the reply sent to Amnesty International by our correspondent, who is a member of the Anglican clergy and a woman.

Dear Ms. Ross,
Thank you for the statement on the situation regarding Amnesty
International's
deliberations concerning abortion advocacy. I certainly do wish to be kept
informed at the developments in these deliberations in the future.
A number of concerns in this area come to me.
First, access to medical care for complications following a surgical
procedure,
whether the procedure is prohibited locally or not, does not strike me as a

specifically women's issue. Access to medical care seems to me to be
something
that can be considered a universal human right. To separate medical care
for
women in regard to sexual or childbearing health from an overall plan for
human
health care perpetuates the racist ideology of the population control
movement of
the 1960's. See Betsy Hartmann's book,  "Reproductive Rights and Wrongs."
Second, sexual abuse as experienced by women in rape and incest needs to be

addressed in culturally appropriate sanctions that concentrate on
confronting and
punishing the abuser. The use of abortion as a response to sexual abuse
actually
perpetuates the abuse by making the victim a victim yet once more. More
likely
than not, the recourse to abortion is a coverup for the male abuser and
reinforces
social sanctions that blame the woman and excuse the abuser. Killing the
child in
utero of an abuser does not provide justice to the victim.
Third, placing the prohibition of abortion on demand in the context of
violence
aginst women strikes me as ethically untenable. Indeed, it is ethically
repugnant.
Violence against women as it is manifest in battering, honor killings,
sexual
trafficking, rape and incest relies on the availability of abortion, legal
or not, to
hide the real situation and protect the perpetrators. Abortion is yet one
more tool
in the kit of abusive male-dominated cultures to maintain dominance of
women
and avoid culpability for its tolerance of abuse.
I am the mother of a domestic violence survivor and a former teacher in
East
Africa. These issues are close to my heart. But what I say here, I say not
only from
experience but from the evidence of researchers, for example, Nancy
Nason-Clark
of the University of New Brunswick in New Brunswick, Canada . The humane
response to the situation of vulnerable women is not intensive chemicals or

invasive surgery, but the re-education of men. This is fundamental. If
Amnesty
International is really interested in the human rights of women,  then it
will
confront the questions of appropriate health care, sexual abuse, and
domestic
violence head on. To all of these questions, legalizing abortion is not an
answer. It
is, rather, a continuation of abuse.
Please forward these comments to those to whom they may be appropriate. I
am
willing to talk to anyone involved in these deliberations. And as I have
said, I would
appreciate being kept informed as to the deliberations of Amnesy
International
concerning this most serious topic.
Sincerely,
The Rev'd.

This is VERY important! If Amnesty International changes it's position from neutrality to pro-abortion, we can expect to see lawsuits in EVERY country which has laws protecting the right to life of the unborn.

A lesson in reconciliation and foregiveness

The title of this is "The Cost of Reconciliation" - about Darfur and the Southern Sudan.

Faith McDonnell on National Review Online

Assisted suicide movement is about euthanasia, not compassion.

Here is an excellent and comprehensive article (not too long) by attorney Wesley Smith. Right to Die Movement is Really About Euthanasia, Not Compassion

Remember, local, state, and federal officials are generally ignorant on this issue and frequently accept the premise that assisted suicide advocates are merely advocating the compassionate thing to end suffereing, etc, etc. They need to be spoon fed the kind of information in this article!

An excerpt:

THERE IS A PRETENSE in contemporary assisted suicide advocacy that goes something like this: "Aid in dying" (as it is euphemistically called) is merely to be a safety valve, a last resort only available to imminently dying patients for whom nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the founder of the Swiss suicide facilitating organization Dignitas is just about done with pretense. The Sunday Times Magazine (London) reported that Dignitas' founder, Ludwig Minelli, plans to create sort of a Starbucks for suicide: a chain of death centers "to end the lives of people with illnesses and mental conditions such as chronic depression."