Amnesty International Official Discusses New Pro-Abortion Position

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 11, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 11
, 2007

London, England (LifeNews.com) — Amnesty International officials finally went public about their secret decision to change their long-standing position of neutrality on abortion. AI has adopted a new policy calling for abortions to be allowed worldwide when a woman is a victim of rape or her health is threatened by the pregnancy.

AI also will call on the overwhelming majority of nations around the world that have pro-life laws prohibit abortions to change them and make abortions legal.

Amnesty International wasn’t supposed to issue a decision on abortion until after its international meeting this fall in Mexico City, but officials with Consistent Life, a liberal pro-life group, told LifeNews.com they had been monitoring the situation and determined that AI’s executive council gave the go-ahead to back abortion.

Widney Brown, senior policy and campaigns director, talked about the policy change with Reuters.

She confirmed that the executive board voted to adopt a pro-abortion position despite complaints from pro-life members.

"Where women have unwanted pregnancies as a result of sexual violence, including incest, they should have access to abortions and those abortions should be safe," Brown said. "When a woman has a pregnancy that may be wanted but there’s a threat to her life or a grave threat to her health then again she should have access to safe abortion."

Commenting on what led to the pro-abortion decision, Brown said AI decided to promote abortion because of its work on stopping violence against women — even though many women who have abortions suffer from physical and mental health problems and feel violated themselves.

"We sort of felt like if we’re going to work on stopping violence against women we have to address (abortion)," said Brown.

She also disagreed that the decision to back abortion was done in secret, although the two years leading up to the decision produced significant international debate.

"There’s simply no reason for us to ‘publicize’ policy issues," she said.

But CL’s AI campaign coordinator Dr. Rachel MacNair told LifeNews.com, "The AI International Executive Committee took this action despite indications that substantial numbers of members disapproved. The results of an on-line vote of members in the United States last fall have yet to be announced."

MacNair also indicated that a CL member who tried to leaflet other AI supporters on this issue at the U.S. national conference on March 24 was barred from doing so and told that her pro-life position was being censored.

Brown told Reuters that Amnesty International was not going to campaign to promote abortion as a "fundamental right" because some international human rights laws and documents call for legal protection for the unborn.

Instead, she said the group would go nation by nation "calling for decriminalization of abortion."

"No women should suffer imprisonment or any criminal penalties as a result of seeking or having an abortion," she said — despite the fact that many pro-life laws punish the abortion practitioner and not the mother.

Pro-life advocates say the new position is diametrically opposed to human rights documents it has historically advocated for such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child.

Pro-life advocates say the new position is diametrically opposed to human rights documents it has historically advocated for such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child.

Fr. Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life, also condemned the position change.

"Amnesty International purports to be an advocate for human rights, yet it apparently now thinks that it’s acceptable for governments to trample on the most important, fundamental right, the right to life," he told LifeNews.com.

"When will we extend amnesty to unborn children?"

TAKE ACTION: Tell Amnesty International that you oppose its becoming a pro-abortion organization fighting to make abortion legal worldwide. Go to https://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.

Related web sites:
Amnesty International – https://www.amnesty.org
Consistent Life – https://www.consistent-life.org