International Pro-Life Group Submits Petition Signatures to UN Against Abortion

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 9, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

International Pro-Life Group Submits Petition Signatures to UN Against Abortion

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 9
, 2008

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — International pro-life groups will submit a petition tomorrow with 340,000 signatures from pro-life people around the world telling the United Nations not to promote abortion. The petition marks the 60th Anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN General Assembly.

United Families International, along with other pro-life groups that work on a global level, says the petition is meant to urge UN officials to acknowledge the pro-life themes in the UDHR.

UFI says the UN should interpret the UDHR to guarantee that "the right to life, liberty and security is for every person; that each child born or unborn, has the right to birth and a full, natural life."

The petition is a response to opposition petition efforts by pro-abortion groups International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International, a British-based abortion business that operates worldwide.

The two pro-abortion groups have demanded that the UDHR be interpreted to make abortion a human right.

Beverly Rice, the president of UFI, told LifeNews.com in a statement that the anniversary of the important United Nations document should be a celebration of human life and respect for it, not an occasion on which to promote abortion.

"During a time when family values are under attack in nations and states across the globe, tomorrow should be a celebration of" life, she explained. "Tomorrow should be a declaration that 60 years ago the United Nations stood up for what is most important."

"But, instead, we fear tomorrow will just be another day on the battlefield, another day when those who wish to destroy the family will make another attempt," she said.

Austin Ruse, the head of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said the petition resulted in significantly more signatures than those collected by IPPF and Marie Stopes.

"We are proud not only to match but far surpass the efforts of pro-abortion groups," he told LifeNews.com. "We launched our drive only two months ago and have generated more than 300,000 names from all over the world."

"I suspect that Marie Stopes and IPPF will present a few thousand names. This shows what we have known all along; that abortion is supported mostly by elites while every day people are for protecting the unborn child," he added.

The UN Petition for the Unborn Child and the Family asserts that the rights presented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are inherent to every person and that governments should extend the right to life to all members of the human family, including the unborn child.

UFI and CFAM have been working on the petition along with other pro-life groups such as the Pro-Life Federation of Poland, the Institute of Family Policy of Spain, and Concerned Women for America.

The organizations will present the petition signatures at UN headquarters in New York and in private meetings with ambassadors from several nations.

Related web sites:
CFAM – https://www.c-fam.org
United Families International – https://www.unitedfamilies.org

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