Australia’s mainstream press has shown little interest in a debate within one the world’s pre-eminent human rights organisations, Amnesty International, that threatens to seriously fracture and weaken the body. Amnesty International's board has just called for abortion to be decriminalised globally. The human rights organisation has thus abandoned its long-held ‘neutral’ policy that states: "Amnesty International takes no position on whether or not women have a right to choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies; there is no generally accepted right to abortion in international human rights law.”
Amnesty branches in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, among others, voted to move away from this neutral stance on abortion. A subsequent poll of UK members had a majority against the change, but this was not binding. Here in Australia, the local branch was unable to reach a formal position on the change. Amnesty’s new policy does stop short of backing aborting as a "fundamental right" for women because, according to spokeswoman Widney Brown, that approach was not supported by international human rights laws.
As a Catholic priest and the Principal of a school with an active Amnesty group, such a change in policy places me in the unwanted position of contemplating the closing down of Amnesty’s presence in the school. Many Catholic members of Amnesty would also face the painful decision of whether they could remain members of the organisation. The English bishop, Michael Evans, a member of Amnesty for thirty years, a council member, and the author of the Amnesty Prayer, has indicated that he will resign from Amnesty if it changes its policy. Other people from other religious traditions, or from none at all, with sincerely held convictions about abortion, would also find themselves in a difficult position.
Bishop Evans is right when he asserts that: “The world needs Amnesty International. It has touched the lives of countless numbers of people across the world who have been wrongly imprisoned for their beliefs or subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Long may it do so - hopefully with the active support of Catholics worldwide. But this will be seriously threatened should Amnesty adopt a policy supporting the right to abortion. Those involved in decision-making at international level need to ponder this very carefully indeed.”
I do not see this issue as being about abortion as such. I would hope that, even as I have a passionate pro-life