Abortion -- The First Human Rights Abuse [Amnesty International now pro-abortion] USCCB.org via E-Mail | Ken Ong
Posted on 06/17/2007 8:45:53 AM EDT by cpforlife.org
Abortion -- The First Human Rights Abuse
Torture, political imprisonment, sexualLL slavery, genocide -- these are a few of the examples one would think of when it comes to human rights abuses. These are heinous abuses that not only Catholics, but all people of good will should fight. But in this list of atrocities, many people can forget that abortion is the earliest and most fundamental attack on human rights.
Until recently, Amnesty International documented and decried China's policy of coercive abortion as a human rights abuse. But earlier this year, Amnesty International changed its generally neutral stance on abortion in favor of a policy supporting abortion rights for any woman who "becomes pregnant as the result of Rrape, Ssexual assault, or Iincest, or where a pregnancy poses a risk to a woman's life or a grave risk to her health." "Health" can and has been interpreted very broadly, and so this new policy opens the door to abortion on demand. By pitting women's "rights" over the right to life of the unborn, this policy will increase the injustice unborn babies suffer worldwide everyday.
A mother's womb should be the place where the smallest of God's children are nurtured and protected, but abortion advocacy makes the womb a place of violence and bloodshed. Human rights groups like Amnesty International should fight to protect the beginning of life as much as they fight to stop the abuses affecting those already born, since the right to life is the foundation for every other human right.
Amnesty International's new policy fails to recognize not only the dignity of the child, but also the reality that many women suffer mentally, emotionally and physically after abortion. The regret from taking part in the death of their child can leave lifelong sorrow. People often don't consider that men can suffer too. Men who encouraged or who didn't have the power to stop the abortion can also be greatly impacted by the loss of their child.
Amnesty International should reconsider their new policy. If they attack the fundamental right to life, the foundation for all other human rights, then they have no credible grounds to stand upon to promote other human rights. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
As a people of faith, we have to work to prevent human rights abuses from occurring, most importantly, in the womb. We must strive to increase respect for human life from conception to natural death, to prevent abortions and the suffering of men and women. We must all work together to protect those unable to speak for themselves, born or soon to be born.
Ken Ong is Staff Assistant to the Executive Director at the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Click to Add Topic KEYWORDS: abortion; genocide; murder; prolife; Click to Add Keyword --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Coleus; nickcarraway; narses; Mr. Silverback; Canticle_of_Deborah; TenthAmendmentChampion; ...
20 weeks from conception
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
2 posted on 06/17/2007 8:48:13 AM EDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
3 posted on 06/17/2007 8:50:00 AM EDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexualLL partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."
Mother Teresa (Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94)
5 posted on 06/17/2007 8:53:24 AM EDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
To: cpforlife.org ...the right to life is the foundation for every other human right. Take that away and you have denied the a human being of all the rest in one fell swoop.
6 posted on 06/17/2007 8:56:58 AM EDT by Turret Gunner A20 [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
7 posted on 06/17/2007 8:57:10 AM EDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org) [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Free Republic Home · Browse · Search Pings · Mail News/Activism Topics · Post Article