Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly to Vote on Pro-Abortion Report Friday

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 29, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly to Vote on Pro-Abortion Report Friday

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 29
, 2009

London, England (LifeNews.com) — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold a debate on vote on Friday on a report that pro-life groups tell LifeNews.com. The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) and the British pro-life group SPUC are asking for calls and emails in advance of the vote.

The ECLJ, in an email today to LifeNews.com, says the PACE report "promotes abortion as a means of family planning and population control in developing countries."

At issue is a report and resolution entitled: "Fifteen Years Since the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action."

The report encourages the Committee of Ministers to start developing a European convention on sexual and reproductive health, and to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights by 2015.

The convention will undoubtedly promote abortion, according to one top European pro-life group.

It points out how the report regards abortion as a matter of family planning and something to be encouraged and promoted.

"The ECLJ is extremely concerned about the underlying promotion of population control in general and abortion as a means of family planning and population control," the organization said.

It made clear in a written submission that the Council of Europe has no authority or competency to promote a so-called "right" to abortion and told members of PACE that the United Nations "never agreed to include abortion as a means of population control, as a ‘right,’ or as part of the definition of family planning."

This Resolution and its Explanatory Memorandum go much further than Resolution Access to Safe and Legal Abortion in Europe voted in 2008, which acknowledged "that abortion can in no circumstances be regarded as a family planning method" and must, as far as possible, be avoided," ECLJ explains.

With this new Resolution, ECLJ says abortion is regarded as a family planning method, and, according to the report,"must be accessible, affordable, appropriate and acceptable to all, irrespective of age, community or country."

Meanwhile, John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, is also urging pro-life advocates to contact the Council members and urge a no vote.

ACTION: Go to this web site to contact members of PACE and urge a no vote on the report on Friday.

Related web sites:
ECLJ – https://www.eclj.org
SPUC – https://www.spuc.org.uk

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