London Times Newspaper Misquotes Pro-Life Advocate on Amnesty Intl
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 30, 2007
London, England (LifeNews.com) — The London Times caused an international sensation last week when it reported that a leading pro-life advocate who monitors music groups and artists indicated singers Christina Aguilera and Avril Lavigne were pro-life. However, LifeNews.com has learned the activist never told the newspaper that.
The singers were in the news because Erik Whittington, director of Rock for Life, was upset that Amnesty International put out a CD featuring them and other artists.
The album’s purpose was purportedly to raise funds for the victims of Darfur but money going to Amnesty International would now fund the group’s new abortion advocacy.
In the original article, the Times said Aguilera and Lavigne have both made statements against abortion.
It said Aguilera "is a devout American Catholic" and "reportedly expecting her first child and has taken part in a television show in which she interviewed a teenager who had kept her baby rather than have an abortion."
About Lavigne, it said the Canadian singer is "from a tight-knit Christian family. Her song Keep Holding On is the backing track to a pro-life video on YouTube that declares ‘abortion is murder.’"
But Whittington told LifeNews.com the article is inaccurate and "has been misleading many people."
The Times story, "has been leading many to believe that we, Rock for Life believe that these two artists are pro-life."
"We did not make any statement saying that these two artists are pro-life. We know for sure Christina Aguilera is not pro-life, since she was a March for Women’s Lives Celebrity Coalition member in support of the March for Women’s Lives, a pro-abortion rally in Washington," Whittington told LifeNews.com.
He said his group would welcome any change of heart but he hasn’t seen one.
"Unfortunately the London Sunday Times’s faulty logic has other publications quoting Rock for Life as saying Aguilera and Lavigne are pro-life," he added.
The CD in question includes numerous artists who perform covers of songs written by former Beatles star John Lennon. His widow Yoko Ono gave the rights to all of the songs to Amnesty in 2003.
Artists who appear on the project include U2, Green Day, and others.
