Amnesty backs UN’s pro-abortion treaty
I’m a member of Amnesty and there’s no doubt it does a great deal of excellent work. However, some recent trends within the organisation are giving me great cause for concern.
A clear indication of Amnesty’s real position on abortion can be gauged from its unequivocal support for CEDAW — the UN Convention on the Elimination ofDiscrimination Against Women.
CEDAW is a so–called human rights treaty, signed by several countries, including Britain andIreland. Signatories must report to the CEDAW committee, which is pro–abortion, as the following examples demonstrate:
In 1998, the committee said that “all states of Mexico should review their legislation so that, where necessary, women are granted access to rapid and easy abortion”.
The committee told the Irish Government in 1999 it was “concerned that, with very limited exceptions, abortion remains illegal in Ireland”.
On August 12, 1997, CEDAW “expressed particular concern with regard to the limited availability of abortion services for women in southern Italy as a result of the high incidence of conscientious objection among doctors and hospital personnel”.
It’s ironic that the organisation originally set up to support prisoners of conscience is now supporting a committee that opposes conscientious objection.
Amnesty has lobbied governments to ratify CEDAW and is supportive of the workings of the CEDAW committee. Despite this, it still insists it is not pro–abortion. Amnesty collects a lot of money based on its slogans Protect the Human and End the Death Penalty — yet it is quietly pro-abortion.
Patrick McGinnity
Derrynoose
Keady
Co Armagh
