Letters to Amnesty Inter. due by May 17

May 15, 2006

Consistent Life Appeals to Amnesty International on Abortion

The Board of Consistent Life has issued an open letter to Amnesty International (AI) regarding AI's consideration of policy positions regarding abortion. AI's 2005 International Council Meeting decided to begin consideration of policies on three specific issues:

1. access to health care for the management of complications arising from abortion;

2. access to abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest or risk to a woman's life; and

3. the removal of criminal penalties for those who seek or provide abortions.

Consistent Life supported the first point, but asked AI to reflect on how much the other two points contradict it. We noted, "What you are basically saying is that governments have a responsibility to clean up after botched abortions, but should have no ability to prevent those botched abortions. They should simply allow the harm to occur, and then deal with it." We asked that AI act consistently with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which states that every child "needs special safeguards and care, including legal protection, before as well as after birth."

We also noted that AI's points do not explicitly cover a woman's right to aftercare for the trauma which often follows having an ordinary abortion. Nor do they cover coerced abortion, or sex-selection abortions. We commented, "In these cases no one could argue whether abortion itself is clearly violence against women, and no policy could pretend to oppose violence against women while remaining silent on these points."

We observed that perpetration-induced traumatic stress (PITS) affects all those who kill other human beings, including those who perform abortions as well as those who kill in war, in police actions or in executions. The effects of PITS lead to botched abortions, as is demonstrated by a number of cases involving legal abortions.

We also observed that sincere advocates of certain life positions may sabotage their own goals by being inconsistent. For AI, its principled position against the death penalty, in which we stand in solidarity with them, "may be discredited if they advocate laws that allow imposition of the death penalty on innocent children without due process."